FL 560 Folklore in a Digital Age
Schedule
Part I: Vernacular Expression and Folklore StudiesWeek 1
1/23: First Day, "Introduction to Folklore, and Who are the Folk?"
1/25: Lecture #1, "Folklore Studies I: Storytelling Today, Talking Trauma "
Required Reading: Folkloristics, "Chapter 1."Week 2
1/30: Lecture #2, "Folklore Studies II: Folklore Studies Today"
Required Reading: Folkloristics, "Chapter 2."
2/1: Lecture #3, "Folklore Studies III: A Brief History of Folklore Studies"
Required Reading: Folkloristics, "Chapter 3."Week 3
2/6: Lecture #4, "Folklore Studies IV: Transmissible Entities, Narrative Types, and Genre"
Required Reading: Folkloristics, "Chapter 4."
2/8: Lecture #5, "Folklore Studies V: Classifying Documents by Structure"
Required Reading: Folkloristics, "Chapter 5."
Week 4
2/13: Lecture #6, "Folklore Studies VI: Locating Meaning in Documents of Performance"
Required Reading: Folkloristics, "Chapter 6."
2/15: Lecture #7, "Folklore Studies VII: Short Forms"
Required Reading: Folkloristics, "Chapter 7."Part II: Documenting Vernacular Expression
Week 5
2/20: Lecture #8,"Rumor on The Bounderies of Narattive"
Required Reading: Georges, Robert. 1969. "Toward and Understanding of Storytelling Events." Journal of American Folklore. 82.1 313-328.
2/22: Lecture #9, "Communication as Behavior"
Required Reading: Bauman, Richard. 1984 [1977]. "The Emergent Quality of Performance." Verbal Art as Performance. Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press. 37-45.Week 6
2/27: Lecture #10, "Emergence and Community"
Required Reading: Oring, Elliot. 1984 `Dyadic Traditions', Journal of Folklore Research. 21: 19-28; and Mechling, Jay. 1989. "'Bannana Cannon' and Other Folk Traditions between Human and Nonhuman Animals." Western Folklore. 48: 312-323.
3 /1: Lecture #11, "Ethnographic Methods"
Required Reading: Georges, Robert A. and Michael Owen Jones. "Alternative Means, Many Ends." People Studying People. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980. 23-42.Part III: Folklore in a Digital Age
Week 7
3/6: Lecture #12, "Folklore and the Mass Media"
Required Reading: Koven, Mikel. 2003. "Folklore Studies and Popular Film and Television: A Necessary Critical Survey." Journal of American Folklore. 116 (460): 176-195.
3 /8: Special Lecture (There will be test questions from this lecture!):
Dr. Daniel Wojcik, "From Superstitions to Miraculous Photography: Approaches to the Study of Folk Belief and Vernacular Religion"
Required Reading: none.
Week 8
3/13: Lecture #13, "Belief and Perception: Spirits"
Required Reading: Hufford, David. 2001. "An Experience-Centered Approach to Hauntings." A Haunting Question of Perception: Scientific Perspectives on Hauntings and Poltergeist. New York: McFarland. 18-40.
3 /15: TBA
3/17: Project Proposal Form Due by 5 PM via email.Week 9
3/20: Lecture #14, "Spirits in a Digital Age: Aliens!"
Required Reading: Dewen, William. 2006. "'A Saucer Full of Secrets': An Inerdisciplinary Analysis of UFO Experiences." Journal of American Folklore. 119 (472): 184-202.
3/22: FIRST IN-CLASS EXAMINATION.Week 10
3/27: Lecture #15, The Consequences of Belief: AIDs
Required Reading: Goldstein, Diane E. 2004. "'Tag You've Got AIDS': HIV in Folklore and Legend." Once Upon A Virus: AIDS Legends and Vernacular Risk Perception. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press. 1-23.
3/29: Lecture #16, "Technologizing Folk Art"
Required Reading: Roemer, Danielle. 1994. "Photocopy Lore and the Naturalization of the Corporate Body." Journal of American Folklore. 107.423. 121-138.and Preston, Michael J. 1994. "Traditional Humor from the Fax Machine: 'All of a Kind.'" Western Folklore. 53. 147-169.Spring Recess
March 31 - April 8Week 11
4/10: Lecture #17, "Folklore Online"
Required Reading: Kibby, Marjorie D. 2005. "Email Forwardables: Folklore in the Age of the Internet." New Media and Society. 7.6: 770-90.
4/12: Lecture #18, "Online Folklore"
Required Reading: Russell, Frank. 2004. "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Go Photoshopping: September 11 and the Newslore of Vengeance and Victimization." New Media and Society. 6.5: 633-658.Week 12
4/17: Lecture #19, "Online Community"
Required Reading: Fernback, Jan. 1999. "Is There a There There?: Notes Toward a Definition of Cybercommunity." Doing Internet Research: Critical Issues for Examining the Net, Steve Jones, Ed. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publishing. 203-220.
4/19: TBAWeek 13
4/24: Lecture #20, "The Vernacular Web"
Required Reading: Gates, Bill. 1976. "Open Letter to Hobbyists" <http://www.blinkenlights.com/classiccmp/gateswhine.html> January 15, 2007., Blood, Rebecca. 2004. "How Blogging Software Shapes the Online Community." Communications of the ACM. 47.12: 53-55., and Consalvo, Mia. 2003. “Cyber-Slaying Media Fans: Code, Digital Poaching, and Corporate Control of the Internet.” Journal of Communication Inquiry. 27:1 (January): 67-86.
4/26: Lecture #21, "Cultural Property Rights and the Vernacular"
Required Reading: Anonymous. 2004. "American Folklore Society Recommendations to the WIPO Intergovernmental COmmittee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge, and Folklore." Journal of American Folklore. 117(465): 296-299.Week 14
5/1:Student Presentations
5/3: Student PresentationsWeek 15
5/8: Student Presentations
5/10: Student Presentations5/17, by 5:00 PM: FINAL PROJECT emailed to instructor or dropped on the morning of the final.
5 /17, 7:45 - 9:45: COMPREHENSIVE FINAL EXAMINATION.