September 28, 2009

Testimony and Truth after Auschwitz

Posted by folkpub under Europe, Narrative
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Testimony and Truth After Auschwitz

Sarah Gordon
Indiana University

Abstract:

Survivor testimony of the Holocaust often deviates from historical fact.  Postmodern theory allows for the near nihilation of that testimony by arguing that history is nothing but a version of events.  This paper seeks to authenticate survivor testimony in a postmodern context through the exploration of an ethics of testimony, concluding that factual truth and testimonial truth are members of fundamentally different categories, the latter dependent not on accuracy but on the social, ethical mandate to respect the memory of people who suffer and die so that others may live to tell the story. (more…)

 

May 1, 2009

“Ten Little Niggers”: The Making of a Black Man’s Consciousness

Posted by folkpub under African American, Children's Folklore, North America, Race
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“Ten Little Niggers”: The Making of a Black Man’s Consciousness

Tiffany M.B. Anderson
The Ohio State University

Abstract:

During Reconstruction in the 1860s, the proud Confederate states found themselves in a place of subordination.  Forced to concede their free slave labor, the former citizens of the Confederacy refused to fold their ideology of the inferiority of the freed slaves.  A “comic” song titled “Ten Little Niggers” circulated through the United States in Minstrel shows and children’s nursery rhyme books in keeping with this ideology.

This paper explores how the ballad shapes social and cultural race consciousness. While the purpose of its widespread popularity was to refute the competency and human qualities of the black freedmen to white audiences, the ultimate legacy that the rhyme leaves behind is the mental conditioning of following generations of black males. The white population who circulated the song intended to define the black freedmen as barbaric and ignorant, yet the song also connected the white-constructed definition of ‘nigger’ to the black man’s consciousness. (more…)

 

May 1, 2009

Edward M. Bruner. Culture on Tour: Ethnographies of Travel

Posted by folkpub under Book Review, Tourism
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Edward M. Bruner. Culture on Tour: Ethnographies of Travel. University of Chicago Press, 2004. 312 pages, 48 halftones. $62.50 cloth, $25.00 paper.

Tracy Musacchio
Knox College

Tourism has a profound effect not only on tourists but also on the cultures visited, as heritage is adapted to the demands of tourism and the historical narrative begins, even, to be reshaped. In this volume Edward M. Bruner, a noted field anthropologist, studies the phenomenon of cultural tourism. He focuses on touristic narratives and, in his words, “the difference between a touristic and an ethnographic sensibility” (1). Bruner’s interest in cultural tourism first developed when he served as a tour guide on a trip to Indonesia. His attempts to educate the group of travelers about the phenomenon of tourism and its interactions with local cultures (for example, that the “native” dance shows they were witnessing were actually modern performances created for the tourist industry) were thwarted by the trip’s coordinator, and he was effectively fired. (more…)

 

April 24, 2009

Within Their Own Seams: 19th Century Fashion and the Management of the Body in Women’s Literature and Letters

Posted by folkpub under Dress, Europe, Identity, India, Modernity
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Within Their Own Seams: 19th Century Fashion and the Management of the Body in Women’s Literature and Letters

Kristiana Willsey
Indiana University

Abstract:

Elizabeth Gaskell’s 1855 novel, North and South, demonstrates the significant position women’s fashion played in the construction and maintenance of identity and self-expression.  Drawing on Gaskell’s novel as well as excerpts from other 19th century women’s letters, travelogues, and memoirs, we see how through imported fashions, English women participated in Empire making and confronted the problems of establishing English identity abroad. Women simultaneously occupied particular local identities and transcended them, articulating the tensions of maintaining both national and international identities through the feminine medium of fashion. At the same time, the tightly managed, corseted body represented a complex response to the advent of modernism. (more…)

 

April 24, 2009

Ulrich Marzolph, ed. The Arabian Nights in Transnational Perspective

Posted by folkpub under Book Review, Folktales
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Ulrich Marzolph, ed. The Arabian Nights in Transnational Perspective. Wayne State University Press, 2007. 348 pages, $31.95 paper.

Fredericka Schmadel
Indiana University

Ulrich Marzolph, editor of Wayne State University Press’s 2007 book, The Arabian Nights in Transnational Perspective, called the Nights a “shape shifter (ix)” and as such, slippery and elusive, especially in view of the torrent of translations, imitations, inclusions, and scholarly and – in the Middle East, ethicist – commentary or even condemnation over the centuries. A transnational perspective is an absolute necessity when one considers that the work in question predates the advent of the modern nation-state. Like the pyramids of Egypt, this collection has lasted untold centuries, but unlike the pyramids, it has moved from its original location to settle into many cultures, many traditions. In this book we glimpse the Nights in a Hawaiian translation, see its reflection in France – the France of long ago and of not so long ago – as well as Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Greece, Baluchistan, India, Japan, Turkey, Persian-influenced countries, Afghanistan, and the international realms of feminist theory, oral performance, psychology, and, of course, politics. We see, in Aboubakr Chraibi’s words, the homage reality pays to this fictional universe, this compilation that has grown and changed over many centuries. It’s clear from the scope and the variety of the contributions that this collection will inspire further research. (more…)

 

April 8, 2009

Harold Hinds, et al. Popular Culture Theory and Methodology: A Basic Introduction

Posted by folkpub under Book Review, Popular Culture, Theory
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Harold E. Hinds, Jr., Marilyn F. Motz, and Angela M. S. Nelson, eds. Popular Culture Theory and Methodology: A Basic Introduction. Madison: Popular Press/ University of Wisconsin Press, 2006. Pp. vii + 406, introduction, bibliography. $65.00 hardcover, $21.95 paperback.

Trevor J. Blank
Indiana University

The relationship between folklore and popular culture has been the subject of scrutiny amongst folklorists, and the study of the connections between these fields is problematic for scholars entangled in debates over the scope and legitimacy of their disciplines. The comparative analysis of popular culture by folklorists has been peripheral, not rigorous. However, it is important to note the influential role of popular culture on folklore, and this field certainly merits the attention of folklorists and cultural historians. Popular Culture Theory and Methodology provides a wonderful introduction for folklorists and interested scholars seeking to enhance their knowledge of the core fundamental theories, methods, and debates that have shaped the popular culture discipline since its acceptance as a serious academic field in the 1960s. (more…)

 

March 24, 2009

Gerbilling Reconsidered: Comparing Talk of Foodways and Sexways

Posted by folkpub under Legends, Sexways
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Gerbilling Reconsidered: Comparing Talk of Foodways and Sexways

Christopher Lewis
The Ohio State University

Abstract
This paper considers the gerbilling legend of the early 1990s. The author contends that, by re-envisioning gay sex as gerbilling specifically rather than anal sex generally, heterosexual tellers of the legend grant themselves permission to participate in anal sex without participating in gay sex—a necessary function at the beginning of the AIDS pandemic. He also contends that reading it against rumors and legends of ethnic foodways more conclusively reveals that the gerbilling legend primarily stigmatizes the gerbil as a sex partner, not the act of rectal insertion, and that therefore the legend is not necessarily anti-anal sex. Meanwhile, it appears to remain anti-homosexual because of how tellers separate themselves from same-sex desire even while embracing traditional homosexual sexways. The paper concludes with a queer approach to the story that reconsiders gerbilling as an acceptable sexual act.
(more…)

 

March 24, 2009

From the Editor

Posted by folkpub under Editor Remarks
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Dear Reader,

Folklore Forum is pleased to be debuting a new feature. In the fall of 2007, the folklore graduate students of Indiana University and The Ohio State University proposed to combine the graduate student conferences that each school had been hosting annually. The first of these combined IU/OSU conferences took place on the Ohio State campus in May of 2008 organized around the theme “Translation/Transformation”.  Participants came from Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin for two days of informative exchange on subjects of interest to students who are up and coming in the discipline. The proceedings included a keynote address by Alan Govenar on the process of working in the public sector and issues related to non-profit management and the development of documentary films, audio recordings, radio programming, touring exhibitions, and interactive media. The weekend ended with a roundtable discussion about the issues raised by the conference proceedings led by Jason Jackson, Teri Klassen, Amy Shuman, and Kirsi Haenninen followed by closing remarks from Dorothy Noyes.

This journal, having as part of its mission statement that it shall be “a space where up-and-coming scholars can interrogate existing paradigms and cultivate a rich intellectual landscape,” wanted to highlight some of the excellent work being done by students today that might not otherwise be given an audience beyond the attendees at the IU/OSU conference. To that end we offer here a selection of work showing the breadth of topics and the level of scholarship that were on display at the 2008 conference.

The conference was judged to be highly successful and has generated interest in increased participation from students in programs at Wisconsin, Missouri, and elsewhere in the Midwest. As folklore students create a more defined space for the presentation of their varied research results through the development of this graduate student conference, Folklore Forum intends to help open that space to a wider audience.

In order to reach that wider audience, Forum plans to make an issue of materials from this conference, in whatever form it may take in future, an annual feature. This year’s iteration of the conference, organized around the theme “Public and Private” will be taking place in Bloomington, Indiana on the 27th and 28th of March, and Forum will be pleased to bring you a selection of papers from this meeting, including the keynote address by Jim Leary, later on this year.

It is our hope that this window into student academic activity is illuminating to our readership, generates discussion and debate in our comments section, and inspires future work.

Monica Foote
Editor, Folklore Forum

 

January 30, 2009

So, What Is the Story Behind This Name?: Royal Praise-Poetry As an Oral Mythic Narrative

Posted by folkpub under Africa, Epic, Narrative, Poetry
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So, What Is the Story Behind This Name?: Royal Praise-Poetry As an Oral Mythic Narrative

Abdulai Salifu
Indiana University

Abstract
The Dagomba praise singing genre of northern Ghana employs figurative language to recapture historical events in the political life of the people. A reigning chief occupies a central, pivotal position in the daily life of the community and is seen as a reincarnation of his ancestors, whose exploits are used to praise him or her. Royal praises rely on stories which depict supernatural ancestral achievements. This piece looks at the metaphors and mythical elements to be found in the language used to praise a chief during a social event in Tamale, Ghana, and focuses on the mythical elements in the praise song, based on real historical events. This happens in the context of a revered epic tradition at a Dagomba King’s palace.


The praise names drummers sing or use to address their patrons at ceremonies are abridged historical mythic narratives, taken from the myths and legends of the Dagbamba (also called Dagombas) of Northern Ghana. The narration assumes mythical dimensions and religious beliefs and practices are woven into the telling of the tale.

(more…)

 

January 14, 2009

The Dynamics of Tradition and Folk Groups in the Role-Playing Game

Posted by folkpub under Jokes, North America, Performance
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The Dynamics of Tradition and Folk Groups
in the Role-Playing Game

B. Grantham Aldred
Indiana University

Abstract
In this article, B. Grantham Aldred explores the multifaceted nature of folk groups through the examination of jokes told as part of a role-playing game.  Exploring the way in which various types of humor appeal to the cultural frames of reference of multiple concentric folk identities, this article posits that folk groups exist in both a macro- and micro- condition, based on shared systems of meaning and functioning through performance. (more…)

 

November 24, 2008

All Mixed Up: A Cultural Exploration of Mixed Tapes and CDs

Posted by folkpub under Music, North America
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All Mixed Up:
A Cultural Exploration of Mixed Tapes and CDs

Don Stacy
University of Oregon

Abstract
This article examines the mixed tape/CD phenomenon in the socio-historical context of lyrical play to show how it functions in our society as an important conduit for the free exchange of information and culture.  Mixes are viewed as a form of “Do It Yourself” (DIY) material culture to show how they serve as ideological playgrounds where the players encounter an infinite number of worldviews and develop the skills needed to construct and express their own worldviews and cultural models.  Interviews with mix-makers and numerous examples of mix cover artwork are used to explore the folkloric process of mix-making, focusing on individual content, style, and production techniques while discussing cultural aspects of mixes in relation to ever-changing technologies and the copyright debate. (more…)

 

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