WHC 391 – Folklore and Oral Culture Fall 2006

Dr. Phillip McArthur, Office: MFB 211, Phone: 293-3907

 

Course Objective

Folklore is often viewed as trite, lies, pure fantasy, inconsequential, without academic significance, or at best, just mere entertainment. The study of folklore itself emerged in the 19 th century when Europeans viewed Enlightenment and industrial man as removed from his illiterate past. We still live with the great dichotomies proposed by the thinkers of that age: modern vs. traditional, civilized vs. primitive, literate vs. illiterate, written vs. oral, industrial vs. agrarian, science vs. belief. Folklore and vernacular culture was that “stuff” and a study of what contemporary man had left behind through capitalist modernization. And, whether viewed positively or negatively, folklore, if not salvaged, would disappear with the inevitable progress of man. Now, in an age of expanded technologies of communication and the forces of globalization one would hardly think that folklore has much of a future. In this course, however, we will explore the foundational place of vernacular culture in the past, today, and across cultures. We will attend specifically to how the study of folklore addresses critical issues in cultural studies and social power. I hope you will find that folkloristics provides a salient vantage point to address how historical, cultural, political and individual meanings are constituted, and that it explains much about the nature of knowledge, social relationships, and communication itself.

 

Required Texts

Jan H. Brunvand The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings

Alan Dundes Holy Writ as Oral Lit: The Bible as Folklore (FTM)

William Wilson On Being Human: The Folklore of Mormon Missionaries

Jack Zipes Fairy Tale as Myth, Myth as Fairy Tale

 

**The majority of the reading includes articles placed on blackboard.

 

Course Requirements

Each class day I will expect you to come to class having responded to one or two reading questions I will give you in advance. These responses will be in the form of short, concise, yet thorough annotations. Each response will be composed of one-two solid paragraphs, typed, and doubled spaced. Too much or too little writing will count against you. You will be accountable for identifying the most critical issues in the reading, condensing them, and then articulating them in a lucid, informative statement that provides an outline with reference to folklore examples when necessary. Greg Dening has written that an author of a book must “present a hundred thousand words in such a way that a reader will recognize and remember what they have said in a dozen words or so.” Your job is to expand on this role of the reader and show that you can recognize and remember what was written in one-two paragraphs.

 

You must bring two copies of these responses (one for me and one for you) at the beginning of each class period they have been assigned. Late submissions will not be accepted. Tardiness for the sake of completing the response will not help since once class has begun the submission window is closed. Because life has its unexpected contingencies, I will grant two non-submissions before it starts to count against you as a zero (note, if you do them all I will eliminate your two lowest scores). In a word, these responses will serve as daily essay exams.

 

The reading list is quite extensive, and will cover about three articles or a book each week. Your Tuesday reading assignment will approximate about 2/3 of the reading for the week (two articles or the same fraction of a book), whereas your Thursday assignment will approximate about 1/3 (one article or the same fraction of a book).

 

I will conduct this course in a seminar-like format. Your reading responses will assist us in creating meaningful discussions and as a point of departure for related topics we wish to explore. I will note daily who has come to class prepared to discuss and share material with your classmates.

 

You are required to produce a 8-10 page term paper in which you present a body of folklore materials and apply principles we will cover to interpret it. This means you will be working with primary sources (folklore materials) and utilize secondary sources to interpret and explain the primary sources. I will provide you with a more detailed explanation in the early stages of the semester. I expect that the quality of your writing (for the term paper and responses) shall be consistent with an upper-division university classroom. Due by 9:00 a.m. Monday, Dec. 11 th.

 

Reading Responses à 45%

Participation à 10%

Term Paper à 45%

100%

 

 

Course outcomes:

  1. Increase capacity to read critically, unpack the architecture of a writer’s argument, then synthesize knowledge through summary and annotation.
  2. Communicate effectively and persuasively in speaking and writing.
  3. Develop and conduct research on a folklore topic that leads to an advanced standing research paper.
  4. Address nexus between critical theories and personal convictions.
    Reading Response Schedule

Sep. 05 (tue) “Folklore” (Richard Bauman)

Texts and Histories

05 (tue) Holy Writ as Oral Lit: The Bible as Folklore (Alan Dundes) pp.1-63.

07 (thu) Holy Writ as Oral Lit: The Bible as Folklore (Alan Dundes) pp. 63-118.

12 (tue) “Folklore and History: Fact Amid the Legend” (William Wilson)

12 (tue) “The Origins of the Fairytale” (Jack Zipes) in FTM

14 (thu) “Myth and History” (‘Okusitino Mahina)

Structures and Processes

19 (tue) “Structural Typologies in Native American Indian Folktales” (Alan Dundes)

19 (tue) “The Story of Asdiwal” (Claude Levi-Strauss)

21 (thu) Selections from The Dynamics of Folklore (Barre Toelken)

26 (tue) “The Ethnography of Performance in the Study of Oral Traditions”

(Richard Bauman & Donald Braid)

Psyches and Culture

26 (tue) “Transformations: The Fantasy of the Wicked Stepmother” (Bruno Bettelheim)

28 (thu) “Four Functions of Folklore” (William Bascom)

Oct. 03 (tue) The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings

(Jan H. Brunvand) pp. 1-124.

05 (thu) The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Ubran Legends and Their Meanings

(Jan H. Brunvand) pp. 125-191.

10 (tue) On Being Human: The Folklore of Mormon Missionaries (William Wilson)

10 (tue) “Oral Patterns of Performance: Story and Song” from The Anguish of Snails:

Native American Folklore in the West (Barre Toelken)

Personal and Group Identities

12 (thu) “Defining Identity Through Folklore” (Alan Dundes)

17 (tue) “Family Misfortune Stories in American Folklore” (Stanely Brandes)

17 (tue) “Differential Identity and The Social Base of Folklore” (Richard Bauman)

19 (thu) “The Problem of Identity in a Changing Culture: Popular Expression of Culture

Conflict along the Lower Rio Grande Border” (Americo Paredes)

24 (tue) “Telling Troubles: Narrative, Conflict and Experience” (Donald Brenneis)

24 (tue) “Tourist Folklore of Pele: Encounters with the Other” (Joyce Hammond)

26 (thu) “Narrating to the Center of Power in the Marshall Islands” (Phillip McArthur)

Gender and Media

31 (tue) “Feminism and Fairytales” (Karen Rowe)

31 (tue) “Rumpelstiltskin and the Decline of Female Productivity” (Jack Zipes) in FTM

Nov.02 (thu) “Negotiating Gender and Power in Ghost Stories” (Patricia Sawin)

07 (tue) “That’s Not What I Said: Interpretive Conflict in Oral Narrative Research”

(Katherine Borland)

07 (tue) Spreading Myths about Iron John” (Jack Zipes) in FTM

09 (thu) “Breaking the Disney Spell” (Jack Zipes) in FTM

14 (tue) “Beauty, Wealth, and Power: Career Choices for Women in Folktales, Fairytales,

and Modern Media” (Linda Degh)

The Politics of Folklore and Culture

14 (tue) “Herder, Folklore, and Romantic Nationalism” (William Wilson)

16 (thu) “Folklore as a Political Tool in Nazi Germany” (Christa Kamenetsky)

21 (tue) “The Making of the Frontier Myth: Folklore Process in a Modern Nation”

(Beverly Stoeltje)

21 (tue) “Folklore as an Agent of Nationalism” (James Fernandez)

23 (thu) HOLIDAY

28 (tue) “Cultural Metaphors and Reasoning: Folklore Scholarship and Ideology in

Contemporary China” (Sue Tuohy)

28 (tue) “Nationalization and Internationalization of Folklore: The Case of

Schoolcraft’s ‘Gitshee Guazinee” (Richard Bauman)

30 (thu) “Narrative, Cosmos and Nation: Intertextuality and Power in the Marshall Islands

(Phillip McArthur)


 

 

ICS Outcomes

  1. ICS graduates will possess a high degree of cultural literacy (history, philosophy, culture) in at least two world areas.
  2. ICS graduates should be able to effectively manage cultural differences and conflicts, and be prepared to develop solutions to real world problems.
  3. ICS graduates should be able to think critically.
  4. ICS graduates should be able to articulate and sustain their views through verbal and written discourse.
  5. ICS graduates will enter graduate school or find employment within one year of graduation.

 

 

Special Needs

Brigham Young University-Hawai'i is committed to providing a working and learning atmosphere, which reasonably accommodates qualified persons with disabilities. If you have any disability that may impair your ability to complete this course successfully, please contact the students with Special Need Coordinator, Leilani A'una at 293-3518. Reasonable academic accommodations are reviewed for all students who have qualified documented disabilities. If you need assistance or if you feel you have been unlawfully discriminated against on the basis of disability, you may seek resolution through established grievance policy and procedures. You should contact the Human Resource Services at 780-8875.

 

Preventing Sexual Harassment

Title IX of the education amendments of 1972 prohibits sex discrimination against any participant in an educational program or activity that receives federal funds, including Federal loans and grants. Title IX also covers student-to-student sexual harassment. If you encounter unlawful sexual harassment or gender-based discrimination, please contact the Human Resource Services at 780-8875 (24 hours).