SLAVIC 2230 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Gingerbread, The Dead Girl, Holy Water
5 Oct 2018
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Some fundamental concepts in the study of folklore. Jan harold brunvand, the study of american folklore, 2nd ed. (new york: w. w. norton, Folklore is the traditional, unofficial, non-institutional part of culture. It encompasses all knowledge, understandings, values, attitudes, assumptions, feelings, and beliefs transmitted in traditional forms by word of mouth or by customary examples. Shared tradition remains the essential criterial attribute of the folk group, ground in shared identity. We can find jokes shared by astronauts, proverbs current among computer programmers ( garbage in, garbage out"), and so on. Folklorists generally associate five qualities with true folklore: folklore is traditional in two senses: it is passed on repeatedly in a relatively fixed or standard form, and it circulates among members of a particular group. Traditional form or structure allows us to recognize corresponding bits of folklore in different guises. Variants are the third defining characteristic of folklore.
