Article

Name: North American Folkloristics: Contemporary Approaches and Conceptions

Authors: J. Rouhier-Willoughby

In the section Проблемы систематизации и публикаци

Abstract: This article provides an overview of folkloristics and the study of folklore in North America. Folkloristics in America is by necessity an interdisciplinary field, usually based in departments dedicated to English, anthropology, or world languages. The concept of folklore itself is broader than is often the case in European countries, including topics that would often be considered to be ethnography elsewhere in the world or are often beyond the scope of folklore studies altogether, such as popular and urban “folk” culture. This article traces the history of this development in the field of folkloristics and the understanding of what the field entails in North America. It discusses the genres represented in the North American tradition, both among the native peoples of North America and among those that immigrated to the country. It outlines the genres, such as gospel and bluegrass music, that arose on the American territory as well, as peoples from various cultural traditions intermingled. The article examines of the evolution of the field from the 1970s to the present day. Criticism of formalist and structuralist theories in the 1970s has led to contemporary analytical approaches to folklore that rejected the unitary views that the formalist school represents. Of particular importance in con-temporary North American folkloristics is the voice of the marginalized. For example, feminist (or gendered) approaches gave rise to an interest in the role folklore played in expressing women’s concerns. Reciprocal ethnography ensures that the tradition bearers’ voice is heard. In this approach, before publication of any work on the material collected from them, the collector asking the bearers to respond to the analysis and includes their own thoughts in the publication. Intersectionality challenges the unitary view of the bearers of tradition, who are often defined by one characteristic, e.g., region, age, or ethnicity. Theorists argue that a combination of these (and other) factors must be considered together to understand how folklore functions in a given context. Relying on articles from recent issues of the Journal of American Folklore, current trends in the field and contentious issues that have arisen as a result are discussed. These include the role of folklorists as activists, how the folklore of some ethnic groups have been overlooked in the field, the narrative turn in humanities and the important role folklore studies should play in this area and the affects of technology on the spread and analysis of folklore.

Keywords: North American folkloristics, сontemporary approaches, conception of folklore and the discipline

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