Contemporary Folkloristics

Students become familiar with contemporary research in international folkloristics. The focus is on research that deals with folklore within a wider social and cultural context. Students become familiar with various forms and items of contemporary folklore and the methods of its study. Discussed will be folklore studies dealing with: contemporary (urban) legends; belief narratives (e.g., ghost stories, legends about UFOs, fairies, magic, devil etc.); folklore in vernacular religious practices and alternative spirituality; folklore in mass and electronic media; in popular culture; in tourism; in advertising; studies dealing with ideological uses of folklore in politics; the role of folklore in the shaping and maintaining of group, local, ethnic etc. identities; and with gender issues in contemporary folklore; etc.

The course combines lecture presentations with participatory activities of students in
discussions on selected articles, students’ presentations, invited lectures, and watching of films and recordings.

The purpose of the practical classes is for the students to familiarize themselves with contemporary folklore conduits, including various forms of media and social networks. Based on their own research, students acquire basic skills of collecting and archiving of online folklore and the specifics of contextual and interpretative analysis of contemporary forms of folklore, such as memes, fake news, conspiracy theories, etc.

Readings:
Ellis Bill 2003: Aliens, Ghosts, and Cults. Legends We Live. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. [COBISS.SI-ID 53689186]
Folklore and the Internet. Vernacular Expression in a Digital World. Blank J. Trevor, ur. Logan: Utah State University Press 2009. [COBISS.SI-ID 63853922]
Folk Culture in the Digital Age. The Emergent Dynamics of Human Interaction. Trevor J. Blank, ur. Logan: Utah State University Press 2012. [COBISS.SI-ID 39164717]
Koven Mikel J. 2008: Film, Folklore, and Urban Legends. Lanham, Maryland, Toronto, Plymouth, UK: Scarecrow Press. [COBISS.SI-ID 42411362]
Dégh Linda 1994: American Folklore and the Mass Media. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. [COBISS.SI-ID 28195938]
Haunting Experiences. Ghosts in Contemporary Folklore. Diane Goldstein, Sylvia Ann Gryder, Jeannie Banks Thomas, ur. Logan, Utah: Utah State University 2007. [COBISS.SI-ID 44950114]
Jeannie Banks Thomas 2015: Putting the Supernatural in its Place: Folklore, the Hypermodern, and the Ethereal. Salt Lake City : University of Utah Press. [COBISS.SI-ID 63189602]
Vernacular Religion in Everyday Life: Expressions of Belief. Marion Bowman in Ülo Valk, ur. Sheffield, Bristol, CT: Equinox. (Abingdon & New York: Routledge) 2012. [http://nukweb.nuk.uni-lj.si/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/logi… ]
Kvartič Ambrož 2017: Pa se je to res zgodilo?: Sodobne povedke v Sloveniji. Ljubljana: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete (Zupaničeva knjižnica 42). [COBISS.SI-ID 288349440]

Recommended Literature:
Bacchilega Christina 1997: Postmodern Fairytales: Gender and Narrative Strategies. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Bennett Gillian, Paul Smith, ur. 1988: Monsters with Iron Teeth. Perspectives on Contemporary Legend III. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
Brunvand Jan Harold 2002: Encyclopedia of Urban Legends. New York; London: W. W. Norton & Company.
Dégh Linda 2001: Legend and Belief: Dialectics of a Folklore Genre. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Sherman Sharon R. in Mikel J. Koven, ur. 2007: Folklore / Cinema: Popular Film as Vernacular Culture. Logan: Utah State University Press.
Campion-Vincent Véronique 2005: Organ Theft Legends. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Routledge Handbook of Conspiracy Theories. Michael Butter in Peter Knight, ur. London in New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group.