8/9/2019 Preface folklore

1/2

PREFACE

The fact that there is no completely satisfactory, modern, and authoritativebasic guidebook to the types of folklore found in the United tates has impededneither the gro!th "in one sense# of American folklore scholarship nor ofpopular interest in the sub$ect% Professional folklore societies and publicationsare proliferating in this country, college folklore courses &ourish as neverbefore, and, as somebody said recently, all anyone seems to need to becomean overnight success as a folk singer is a guitar and a cold in the head% 'ut thisapparent harmony masks confusion% The fact is that there are damaging gapsin understanding bet!een academically trained folklore specialists at one endof the scale, devoted but self(taught amateurs in the middle, and the generalpublic at the other end% )hen members of these three groups discuss*American folklore* among themselves, the !ords may have a variety ofmeanings, and !hen the untrained enthusiasts give courses or !rite articles onAmerican folklore, misinformation is spread and confusion is !orse confounded%

+n one form or another, the uestion fre uently asked is- *)hat constitutes thesub$ect matter of American folklore./ There is no single reference !ork,ho!ever, that gives a reliable ans!er% Richard 0% 1orson2s American Folklore "Chicago, 3454#, for instance, is an e6cellent historical survey of thedevelopment of the ma$or folk traditions, but it does not attempt to de7ne*folklore / itself in all of its varieties e6cept in general terms or by means ofe6amples% 1orson2s accompanying anthology, Buying the Wind "Chicago,3489#, contains further e6amples from seven regional groups, as !ell as ane6cellent introductory essay on "53#%

8/9/2019 Preface folklore

2/2

Folklore collecting in the United tates but it o:ers no basic de7nitions orcategories% Using the bibliographies in these !orks, one might educate himselfin basic matters, but it !ould be a long path, and one partly traced through athicket of out(of(print books and obscure $ournals% At the end many kinds ofAmerican folklore that are vigorously alive in oral tradition !ould still be leftunmentioned, for print has not kept up !ith )ord(of(mouth%

A trut!orthy guidebook is needed, of course, for folklore generally, Kenneth S.Goldsteins A guide for eld workers in folklore "philadelphia 3489# illustratesthis% ;oldstein declines atboro, Pa%, 348?#% Another !riter !horecently faced the same problema is Alan 1undes, !ho in the introduction tohis anthology, "he Study of Folklore "Engle!ood cli:s, @% %, 3485#, brie&ycriticiBes e6isting de7nitions, enumerates typical materials of folklore, and thene6presses hope that these matters !ill be cleares to his readers after they havestudied the anthologiBed articles%

+t is obvious that an +rish handbook has limited value outside of +reland, andthat a collection of previous studies is limited by the range of topics that hasalready been treated in reasonably concise essays% 'ut more general surveyvolumes on folklore have never been completely successful%