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Scand/Complit 230: Introduction to Folklore Studies Autumn Quarter 2014

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Scand/Complit 230: Introduction to Folklore Studies Autumn Quarter 2014 Scand/CompLit 230: Introduction to Folklore Studies Autumn Quarter 2014 Class meets Monday thru Friday, 12:30-1:20 pm, Savery Hall 260 Class website: (see link in your MyUW account) Instructors: Guntis Šmidchens, office hours: daily 11:30-12:00 noon, and by appointment; Office: Raitt Hall 305 V; e-mail: [email protected]; Phone: (206) 616-5224 Britt Lewis, office hours Tuesday and Thursday 1:30-2:30 pm Office Raitt Hall 108 B; e-mail: [email protected] Course Description Folklore (traditional stories, beliefs, songs, customs, and material culture) is a rich resource for remembering and understanding people and their worldviews. This course will survey genres of folklore: Folktales, legends and oral poetry, as a window into the lives of the people who perform them. A variety of theories and methods applied in folklore studies during the past two centuries will be introduced in readings and lectures. Course Objectives Learn “classic” folklore examples: variants of legends, folktales and songs in Northern Europe & America Learn methods of collecting & analyzing folklore, with particular attention to folkloristics in North Europe Do folklore studies: Collect, describe and interpret items of folklore from oral tradition o practice folkloristic methods of observing & rigorously describing & understanding living humans! Grades See UW grading guidelines at [Link]. What grade do you plan to get? Class discussion of assigned readings (face-to-face and online) 10% Four exams on reading assignments and lectures, 50% Three ethnographic (folklore collection) projects and portfolio: 30% Peer review of classmates’ ethnographic projects 10% Required Readings Lynne S. McNeill, Folklore Rules: A Fun, Quick, and Useful Introduction to the Field of Academic Folklore Studies. Utah State University Press, 2013 [This is an e-book in the UW Library] Additional required readings include websites and selected articles as listed in the Lecture schedule. Links and copies are available on the course website. 1 How to Succeed in Reading Assignments Jot down assignment numbers, and write notes as you read. Some items will not have all of this information: Remember folklore texts: 1. Note some typical examples of folklore; summarize in one sentence. 2. How do these folklore texts relate to other items discussed today and this week? Remember folklore contexts: 1. Who performed this text to a folklorist? 2. What was this text’s “natural context”? (traditional time & place, audience) Remember folklorists: 1. Who is the folklorist? (Who collected, edited, and printed the text that you’re reading?) 2. How did the folklorist collect, edit and present folklore texts? 3. Sketch out an outline of the assigned chapter. What is this folklorist’s analytical “point”? Does she or he describe texts and contexts? Compare variants? Analyze function and/or meaning? 4. Do you agree with the folklorist? (is the discussion of social and cultural contexts complete)? Class Discussion of reading assignments (10%) Bring ideas you’ve jotted down in your reading notes, and discuss them with your classmates! You will be assigned one of the assigned readings for which you must (1) lead off the class discussion, and (2) post a short (1-2 paragraph) summary on the class website. Add comments to posts by other students. Four Exams on reading assignments (50%) These multiple-choice choice tests will check if you have learned basic concepts and classic examples in folklore studies, as discussed in assigned readings and lectures. Ethnographic projects (30%), peer review of classmates’ projects (10%) 1. Due Sunday, October 5, 8:00 pm: (1 page) Photograph and describe a traditional object, if possible, in its natural context. Who made it and who used it, how, where, and when (date?). What meanings did the person attach to the item? *****Upload your project on the class website. *****Critique a classmate’s project, as assigned on the website (Did they follow directions? Do you see connections to ideas from readings or lectures? Do you see ideas that need to be added?). 2. Weekend fieldwork, due Sunday, October 26, 8:00 pm: (1-2 pages) Document an oralpoem or song sung in unofficial oral tradition. Describe the natural context: Who sang it to whom, where, when? Transcribe the words. Describe the poetic form. Analyze the song’s function (what does singing do for the singers?) and meaning (what do singers think about?) ***** Upload your project on the class website. ***** Critique a classmate’s project. 3. Weekend ethnography, due Tuesday, Nov. 25, 8:00 pm: (2-3 pages) Document a folk narrative (folktale, legend or joke) that you have encountered in oral tradition. Describe context and function. Identify a traditional motif(s) at the core of this story, and interpret its meaning in this context. ***** Upload your project on the class website; critique a classmate’s project. 4. Due Friday evening, December 5: Revise projects 1-3, and combine everything into one file. Write a one-page introduction: What do these examples of folklore reveal about humans and their traditions? 2 SCAND/ CLIT 230 Class Schedule and Readings Week 1 (September 24-26): Discovering traditions, describing people Wed: Birth of a scholarly discipline: folklore studies in the USA Background reading: 1. “On the field and work of a journal of American folklore” Journal of American Folklore 1,1 (1888) [Link] Thurs: Early reports from the field Reading due today, Thursday: 2. Jeremiah Curtin, “European Folklore in the US” JAF 2,4 (1889): 56-59 [Link] 3. Gustav Eisen, “A Swedish Rhyme for Counting Out” JAF 2,6 (1889): 235 [Link] 4. Lynne S. McNeil, “What is Folklore?” in Folklore Rules, pages 1-16. [This is an e-book in the UW Library] Fri: Folklore studies, then and now 5. McNeil, “Types of Folklore” in Folklore Rules, pages 37-61. [This is an e-book in the UW Library] 6. Sir James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, Volume 11 (1911), excerpts [class website]. 7. Photos of Scandinavian Midsommer celebrations in Poulsbo, Washington: [Link] Week 2 (September 29-October 3): Documenting and interpreting material traditions Mon: Documenting things. Fieldwork and material culture 8. Simon Bronner, “Folk Objects,” in Folk Groups and Folklore Genres [e-book at the UW Library] Tues: Group customs and things 9. McNeil, “Types of Folk Groups,” in Folklore Rules, pages 65-88. [This is an e-book in the UW Library] 10. Eric Dregni, “Food,” in Vikings in the Attic: In search of Nordic America (2011), 15-41 [class website] Wed: Wearing things 11. Thomas Ericksen, “Keeping the Recipe: Norwegian folk costumes and cultural capital,” Focaal: European Journal of Anthropology, 44, (2004): p. 20-34. [class website] Thurs: Interpreting things 12. Carol Burke, “The Things they Bring to War” [class website] Fri: Introduction to folklore studies 13. McNeil, “What do folklorists do?” in Folklore Rules, pages 20-34. [e-book in the UW Library] Weekend fieldwork, due Sunday, 8:00 pm: Photograph and describe a traditional object, if possible, in its natural context. Who made it and used it, how, where, and when (date?). What meanings did the person attach to the item? Week 3 (October 6-11): Musical traditions Mon: Folklorism: Old wine in new bottles, old instruments on new stages 14. Aaron Patrick Mulvany, “Magic and Mayhem: Folk Metal in Scandinavia” (Chapter 4), Reawakening Pride once Lost: Indigeneity and European Folk Metal, M.A. thesis, Wesleyan University, 2000, pages 45-71. [Link] Tues: Folk Metal in Estonia 15. Lauri Õunapuu, “Metsatöll’s unexpected metal instruments,” http://youtu.be/CcoMY3_UWxI 16. Metsatöll website, http://metsatoll.ee/en/index.html Wed: First Midterm test Thurs: Musical traditions, poetry traditions 17. (in-class film excerpt): Regilaul: Songs of the Ancient Sea Fri “Voices of Nations in Songs” – folk poetry and people 18. Šmidchens, “Herder’s Discovery of Baltic Songs,” in The Power of Song (Seattle, 2014), pages 26-49. [this is an e- book in the UW Libraries catalog] 3 Week 4 (October 13-17): History of oralpoetry studies Monday: Are proverbs poems? What is oralpoetry? 19. Lau, Tokofsky & Winnick, “Introduction,” What goes around comes around : the circulation of proverbs in contemporary life (2004), read pages 1-14 [this is an e-book at the UW Library] 20. John Miles Foley, “Four Scenarios,” in How to Read an Oral Poem [class website] Tues: History of oral poetry scholarship: From ancient survivals to strategic performances 21. Bolton, “Counting out Rhymes of Children,” JAF 1 (1888), 31-37 [Link] 22. Kenneth Goldstein, “Strategy in Counting Out: An Ethnograpic Folklore Study” (1971) [class website] Wed: History of oral poetry scholarship: creating national symbols 23. Finnish folksongs, “Song Challenge” and “Sampo” [class website] 24. excerpt from the Finnish national epic by Elias Lönnrot, Kalevala, translated by Keith Bosley … 22-38 Thurs: History in Scandinavian ballads 25. Axel Olrik, “The Historical Ballad” (1939) and three Danish historical ballads, [class website] 26. selections from Robert Wright, Swedish Emigrant ballads [class website] Fri: History of one Scandinavian (or international?) ballad (Child #13, “Edward”) 27. “Edward,” sung by May Kennedy McCord (1958), in the online Max Hunter Collection [Link] 28. “Svend in the Rose Garden” (Child #13) [class website] 29. GNY, “Svend i Rosegård” (2010), on YouTube [Link] 30. Archer Taylor, Edward and Svend i Rosegård (1931), excerpts [class website] Week 5 (October 20-24): Interpreting oralpoetry Mon: Connecting songs to singers’ experiences 31. Richard Allen Burns, “Where is Jody Now? Reconsidering Military Marching Chants” (2012) [class website] Tues: Connecting songs to other songs (intertextuality) 32. Atkinson, “Edward, Incest and Intertextuality…” Southern Folklore 55,2 (1998): 101-132 [class website] Wed: Folksong fieldwork = people studying people 33. “Four Conversations,” in Henry Glassie, All Silver and No Brass (Bloomington, 1975), 3-37 [class website] Thurs: Reconstructing oral poetry performance in Ireland and Latvia 34.
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