2013-2014_Folklore

Faculty Information
Minor
     Courses

Folklore is the dynamic and variable expressive culture that we learn in informal interactions with people we meet regularly or that we learn through informal communications via the Internet or personal writing. The many traditional genres of folklore include the verbal arts, such as epic, ballad, folksong, folktale, legend, myth, joke, tall tale, riddle, and proverb. Newer genres include YouTube postings, contemporary (“urban”) legends, and digital “memes.” Folklore also includes customary and material forms, such as calendar customs, games, dances, foodways, modes of dress, folk architecture, and crafts such as chair making, blacksmithing, and the many forms of fabric art. People learn and share folklore within interest groups that have a common ethnic, religious, occupational, hobby, or other experiential basis.

Folklore studies range widely. Our program at Idaho State University has two focuses: In English courses we study oral literature: the way it is learned, transmitted, and performed, and its cultural and historical contexts. We focus on textual questions, studying folk aesthetics and connotation and the relationships between oral and written literatures. In Anthropology courses we study folklore as an expression of cultural diversity and examine the social functions of folklore within cultural groups. Students minoring in folklore may take courses from both departments to obtain a well-rounded understanding of folklore.

Knowledge and skills in folklore enhance a broad range of majors. Experience in folklore benefits students interested in continuing to graduate programs in folklore, history, anthropology, English, American studies, and sociology. Knowledge of folklore is helpful, too, in public history, museum, and oral history programs. Folklore courses enhance the knowledge of both elementary and secondary teachers and of those planning to do social work or to work in business or in the health-related professions.

The program in folklore offers a minor designed to augment Anthropology, English, History, Sociology, or any other major. The program's required course, ANTH/ENGL 2212, introduces students to the study of folklore genres, folklore fieldwork, and types of folk groups. Upper-division courses provide students with more focused study of folklore issues and genres, the history of folklore scholarship, particular folk cultures, and the interrelationship of genres within those cultures. The program also provides opportunities for study of ethnographic and material culture fieldwork techniques. Specialized courses include material culture, American Indian verbal and material arts, and courses in the relationships between folklore and literature, including fantasy literature.

The minor in folklore consists of 18 credits, as follows:

Folklore Program

Minor in Folklore

Anthropology Courses

English Courses