ENG 316: ‘Folklore’

Introduction to FolkloreLec# 01

Dr. Tulika Chandra,Shiv Nadar University, India

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The term "folk" suggests people belonging to different groups which

shared a common factor, language, religion, culture and traditions. The knowledge of such kind of traditions and culture is known as

folklore. The very notion of "folk" raises up the feeling that it belongs to the

field of illiterate and marginalised people. It is a fact that the oral tradition, on which the folklore is based, is often used as a tool by the subaltern groups as a voice to their difficulties & dilemmas.

Somehow people could not decipher the implicit meanings in the stories, proverbs, jokes and riddles. The folklore theories endeavour to delve into the deep rooted meaning of folklore and attempt to find out the origin of the tales. Folklore studies can also be taken as a way to raise one's awareness of the culture that one is coming from.

Introduction

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Folklore is often defined as an expression through a medium

like: tale or legend that begins from and is traditional among a people or folk. Folktales are different from myths and legends because they do not always have religious leanings, and are not based on historical truths.

Folklore especially form a part of the tradition of the common people, an expression that springs from the shared history of a particular community. This history is then passed down to the next generation.

Traditional folklore doesn’t have an individual author; instead it is owned by the community. The folklore contains the entire culture of the community, which also differentiates it from other groups. There is a collective conscious stored within the folklore.

Introduction

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Because it's pervasive, informative, and fun.

What do you think when someone sneezes? What do you do when a cat crosses your path? Why do we put lights on the Christmas tree? Why are popular jokes created about the Rajnikanth and Alok Nath?

We will together discovered that folklore can stimulate our intellectual, creative, and aesthetic desires. It has much to tell us about people's attitudes, beliefs, and concerns.

Why Study Folklore?

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Jan Brunvand. The Study of American Folklore: An

Introduction, 2nd edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 1978.

“Folklore comprises the unrecorded traditions of a people; it includes both the form and content of these traditions and their style or technique of communication from person to person.

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.”

What have some of the scholars said:

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There really is no putative settlement as to exactly what the boundaries of folklore encompass.

A simple definition of folklore offered by Archer Taylor (1946): " What, then, is folklore? We might reply with such a dictionary definition as "Material that has been handed on by tradition." It is, in other words, the lore of the folk and not the learning in books. We have not come very far. Let us ask, then: What material? We might answer: Things, words, music, ideas (that is, customs and beliefs). “

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Definition of Folklore: “It is possible...…..to define both folk

and lore in such a way that even the beginner can understand what folklore is. The term "folk" can refer to any group of people whatsoever who share at least one common factor. It does not matter what the linking factor is--it could be a common occupation, language or religion--but what is important is that a group formed for whatever reason will have some traditions which it calls its own.” (Alan Dundes, 1965)

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The list includes both: Expected folklore & ‘not so obvious’

folktales. The expected subjects of folktales, legends, myths,

ballads, festivals, folk dance and song. Folklore that may not be as obvious, such as children's

counting out rhymes, food recipes, house, barn and fence types, latrinalia (informal writings in public restrooms), as well as the sounds traditionally used to call specific animals.

Dundes says, “that this list is not exhaustive, but merely a sampling of the subjects that folklore scholarship can address, and which merit study for the insight that they provide into specific cultures” (Dundes, 1965: 3)

Dundes provides a list of various types of folklore to demonstrate the large range of

the field of study.

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When William Thoms coined the term "folklore" in 1846 in England, "the folk," were considered the illiterate peasantry of a given region: "European peasants specifically, and no one else" (Dundes 1980, 4).

For centuries intellectuals have been collecting and recording folktales throughout Europe. Straparola first collected fairy tales in 16th century Italy, a practice taken up by Salon culture of 18th century France and then academics like Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in 19th century Germany. Educated, "civilized" people studying the folk did not consider themselves part of the folk, but instead believed themselves "above" the folk, civilized, more rational, more adult.

We are talking about those scholars who often exaggerated the folk, well-regarded their lore, and sometimes grieved the loss of folklore in their own "enlightened" lives. By the middle of the 19th century, evolutionary perspectives from science influenced social scientists as well, leading to explicit notions of primitive versus civilized within and among societies.

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The previously judgmental notions

In the early 1900’s, a number of scholars in folklore and anthropology actually spent time in the field.

They stayed & lived with the cultures and people they studied. This led to long term interaction. Their observations and first-hand experiences taught them that

our similarities as humans are greater than our differences. Many of the defined notions got washed-out. Scholars, researchers found the cultures and people who had

literally been referred to as "others" or "primitives" were, in fact same as they were.

The researchers found them to be as complex, humane, technically smart, artistically inspired and enriching, philosophically profound, morally deep, and as fully mature as their own.

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Finally in the 1960's and 70's scholars officially

casted-off the evolutionary perspective of early folklorists

Re-shaped the term folklore to reflect a more inclusive and accurate definition,

Cotemporary age recognizes as ‘folk’ as any collectivity (a group or a culture): "Who are the folk? Among others, we are!" Alan Dundes proclaimed in 1977 (1980, 19).

Transition

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Thank you