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Reading Folklore in Early Modern Europe (HIST 71100, GEMS 82100, MALS 74700)

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Reading Folklore in Early Modern Europe (HIST 71100, GEMS 82100, MALS 74700) Reading Folklore in Early Modern Europe (HIST 71100, GEMS 82100, MALS 74700) Dr. Sarah Covington Spring 2020, Tuesdays, 4:15-6:15 Room 6421 Course Description This class invites students into a doubly unfamiliar world: that of folklore and that of early modern Europe (1400-1700). Both raise distinct challenges, resisting our modern and ingrained assumptions and understandings; at the same time, their unfamiliarity also calls us to stretch ourselves as scholars and to see them (as much as we can) on their own terms. Folklore itself is widely misunderstood, often dismissed by historians as un-factual, its terminology confused (“myth” being freely confused with “legend,” for example), or folklore itself perceived as belonging to the realm of the rustic peasantry alone. Even literary scholars (as well as historians) who are interested in matters of orality do not consult with the incredibly rich theoretical contributions of folklorists, failing to identify motifs or the ways in which oral and textual cultures intersect or are transmitted. And this does not even touch on how folklore—also known as vernacular culture—is so much more than narrative alone. The early modern world is also challenging for those who wish to enter its very different mental universe. Neither medieval nor modern, the period both looked back and harkened forward while remaining uniquely its own entity. And while folklore prevailed as it has throughout history— though it was known as “popular antiquities” then, “folklore” not coming into existence as a word until 1846—we have to dig harder to find it. Only in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (not uncoincidentally, with the rise of the nationalism) did figures such as the Brothers Grimm seek it out and publish it in textual form, and even then, committing a folk tale to text involved all kinds of authorial and editorial mediation on the transcriber’s part, not to mention a reduction if not extinguishment of the performative elements involved in storytelling everywhere. Instead, we must read into early modern texts for evidence of oral culture and folklore, which this class seeks to do. By exploring only some of the folkloric elements in that culture, after plunging first into the discipline of folkloristics, can we understand how tradition functioned, and in the process, extend our own work in new and surprising ways. Learning Goals: 1. Understand key concepts in folkloristics and the study of folklore across different social groups. 2. Identify, and analyze the forms of folklore: motifs, genres, folk groups, function. 3. Apply that knowledge to early modern understandings in religious belief, the supernatural, demons and witches, and fairy tales. 4. Apply this knowledge to one’s own projects and work, enriching it in the process. Assignments (See below for more detail) 1. Fieldwork Assignment (5%) 2. One research paper (60%) 3. Discussion participation (35%) TENTATIVE SCHEDLE AND READINGS ** (Note: all the primary source readings in the second column are on Blackboard). Part I: What is Folklore? Date Topic Primary Source Reading Secondary Source Reading Required * = Required 1/28 Introduction Herodotus: Father of *”Michael Owen Jones, “Applying Ethnography and Folklore Folklore Studies: An Introduction,” pp. Basic concepts and 1-11, in Putting Folklore to Use definitions Screening excerpts: (Lexington, KY, 1994), pp. 1-11 (note: please don’t read beyond page 11 unless “Folklore” terminology: https://www.youtube.com/ you want to!). Full text available on GC verbal arts, the watch?v=dHDZ0Fg5q-s Library website. vernacular, folk life Screening: Appalachian *Robert A. Georges and Michael Owen Elite vs. popular cultures Journey: Jones, “Introduction: Folklore and its https://www.youtube.com/ Study,” in Folkloristics: An Introduction From popular antiquities watch?v=MXh8SDp0H-E (Bloomington, IN, 1995), pp. 1-19. to folklore Available on Blackboard. “Text, Context, Texture” Simon J. Bronner, “Toward a Definition of Folklore in Practice,” Cultural Anthropology and other Analysis 15 (2016), pp. 6-27. Available disciplines at https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~culturalan alysis/volume15/pdf/bronner.pdf 2/4 Who are “the Folk”?: Biblical and other *Alan Dundes,“Who Are the Folk?” in Defining the Group proverbs Dundes, Interpreting Folklore By Alan Dundes (Bloomington, IN, Ballads of drinking and 1980), pp. 1-19. Text available at the early modern alehouse https://lizmontague.files.wordpress.com/ social group (“Roaring 2011/10/fl-whoarethefolk.pdf Dick of Dover”, etc) *Dan Ben-Amos “Toward a Definition of Folklore in Context,” in Américo Paredes and Richard Bauman, eds., Toward New Perspectives in Folklore (Bloomington, IN, 2000), pp. 3-15. Available at https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcont ent.cgi?article=1078&context=nelc_pape rs *Dorothy Noyes, "The Social Base of Folklore," in Bendix et al (eds), A Companion to Folklore (Oxford, 2012), pp. 13-39. Full text available on the GC library website. Rosan A. Jordan, “Folklore And Ethnicity: Some Theoretical Considerations,” available at http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Virt ual_Books/Guide_to_State/Jordan.html *Wolfgang Mieder, “’The Wit of One, and the Wisdom of Many’: Proverbs as Cultural Signs of Folklore,” in Behold the Proverbs of a People: Proverbial Wisdom in Culture, Literature, and Politics. (Jackson, 2017). Full text available on the GC library website. 2/11 What are the Functions Aesop’s Fables *Eric Hobsbawm, “Introduction: of Folklore?: Tradition Inventing Traditions” in E. Hobsbawm & and Culture T. Ranger, The Invention of Tradition,1- 14. Available at http://psi424.cankaya.edu.tr/uploads/files /Hobsbawm_and_Ranger_eds_The_Inve ntion_of_Tradition.pdf *William Bascom: Four Functions of Folklore Journal of American Folklore 67 (1954), pp. 333-349. Available on Jstor. *Dorothy Noyes, “Tradition: Three Traditions.” Journal of Folklore Research 46 (2009), 233- 268. Available on GC Library website. *Raymond Williams, “Introduction” and “Tradition,” in Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, rev. ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983), pp. 11-26; 224-225/. T. Hofer “The Perception of Tradition in European Ethnology.” Journal of Folklore Research 21 (1984):133-148. Available on Jstor. 2/ 18 Theorizing Folklore, Suetonius, Lives of the Introduction: ATU Index Folktale Types, and the Emperors Question of Transmission *Elliot Oring, “Folk Narratives” from The Wild Hunt (ATU Folk Groups and Folklore Genres: An E501) Introduction, pp. 121-146. Full text available on the GC Library website. ATU Index *Alan Dundes, “The Study of Folklore in Literature and Culture: Identification and Interpretation,” pp. 67-76. Available on https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewc ontent.cgi?article=1077&context=usupre ss_pubs Hasan El-Shamy and Jane Garry. Archetypes and Motifs in Folklore and Literature: A Handbook (Armonk, NY, 2005). Available at GC Library website. Amy Shuman and Galit Hasan-Rokem, "The Poetics of Folklore,"in A Companion to Folklore, pp. 55-74. Available on GC library site. Ben-Amos, “Introduction,” in Folklore Genres (Austin, 1981), pp. xii-xvl. Available on Blackboard. Vladimir Propp. Morphology of the Folktale, 2d. ed., excerpts (Austin, 1968), pp. 1-46 (go to http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/propp.p df) II. Taking Folklore to the Early Modern World 2/25 Oral and Textural The Fabliaux: *Peter Burke, Popular Culture in Early Cultures; Methods in “Brunain, the Priest’s Modern Europe 3rd ed. (Routledge, Accessing Early Modern Cow,” “The Peasant 2016), chapters 3, 4 and 5. Old edition Folklore Doctor,” “The Woman available on GC Library website. Who Hanged her Husband’s Body,” “The *“Introduction,” in The Spoken Word: Man Who Had A Oral Culture in Britain, 1500- Quarrelsome Wife” 1850 edited collection, by Adam Fox and Daniel Woolf (Manchester, Manchester Geraldus Cambrensis, University Press, 2002) pp. 1-51. Full Topographia Hibernica text available on GC Library website. (1188) Guy Beiner, Remembering the Year of the French: Irish Folk History and Social Memory (Madison, WI, 2007), pp. 17-33. Full text available on the GC library website. 3/ 3 Popular Religion: St. George legend, Hilary Powell, “Once Upon a Time Miracles, Saints, and Jacobus de There Was a Saint…”: Re-evaluating Godly Wonders Voragine, Golden Legend Folklore in Anglo-Latin Hagiography,” Folklore 121 (2010), pp. 171-189. Catherine of Siena: Available at various excerpts/writings https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl es/PMC3672990/ Matteo Bandello, “An Avaricious Priest,” in Patrick Geary, “Humiliation of Saints,” Twelve Stories. in Stephen Wilson, (ed.), Saints and their Cults: Studies in Religious Sociology, Increase Mather, Essay for Folklore and History (Cambridge, 1983), the Recording of pp. 123-140. Full text available on GC Illustrious Providences Library website. (1684) (excerpt) *Robert W. Scribner, “Elements of Popular Belief,” in The Handbook of European History 1400-1600, ed. Thomas A. Brady, Jr.; Heiko A. Oberman, and James D. Tracy Grand Rapids, MI, 1994). *Don Yoder, Toward a Definition of Folk Religion, Western Folklore Vol. 33, No. 1, Symposium on Folk Religion (Jan., 1974), pp. 2-15 Available of Jstor.org. *Carl Watkins, “Folklore” and “Popular Religion” in Britain during the Middle Ages,” Folklore 115 (2004), pp. 140- 150. Available on Jstor. *J-C Schmitt, “Religion, Folklore, and Society in the Medieval West,” in Debating the Middle Ages: Issues and Readings, ed. Lester K. Little and Barbara H. Rosenwein (Oxford: Blackwell, 1998), 376–87. Full
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