Earthpages.org posted: " The term folklore was coined in 1846 by W. J. Thomas to replace the previous notion of popular antiquities. Difficult to define, folklore is now understood as the knowledge, customs, beliefs, stories, songs, dances, humor, rituals and orally transmitt" Earthpages.org
Folklore is not confined to the forest but it does figure prominently
The term folklore was coined in 1846 by W. J. Thomas to replace the previous notion of popular antiquities. Difficult to define, folklore is now understood as the knowledge, customs, beliefs, stories, songs, dances, humor, rituals and orally transmitted information of a given community or culture. Often passed on from generation to generation, folklore connects of with our ancestors, helps us to understand our past, and provides us with a sense of identity and belonging.¹
Also, folklore is an important source of inspiration for artists, writers, and musicians and it can help us to understand the world around us or at least, lead us to believe that we understand. Folklore is often used to explain natural phenomena such as the changing of the seasons or the movement of the stars. It provides us with a way of understanding the world that is different from science or religion.¹
Folklore and Fairy Tales
According to Professor T. Henighan,² the Freudian child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim distinguishes between folklore and fairy tales.
Fairy tales are a type of folk tale in which:
The names of heroes and heroines are absent or ordinary
Supernatural but not divine beings are mentioned
Positive outcomes are the norm
Childhood and adolescence figure prominently
The actual Oedipal content is obscured through elaborate symbolism
Some say a definition of folklore must also include its academic study because by studying folkloric data from a different set of cultural assumptions (those held by an academic), the original material is necessarily interpreted and altered.
Folklore is often associated with the marginalized or popular dimension of a given culture, in contrast to the written stories of orthodox religious organizations. Some scholars limit folklore to so-called primitive cultures, while others extend the concept to apply to modern social formations---e.g. the destructive folkloric beliefs and practices of the Nazis (e.g. how the Aryans saw themselves as the 'master race').
The line between primitive folklore and contemporary belief is blurred and not easily discerned. The depth psychologist Carl Jung discusses this in connection with the Nazis and their disturbing beliefs and practices. For Jung, the Nazi horror exemplified an entire nation engulfed by the destructive power of an archetype, in this case, the Wotan archetype. Whether or not the reality was quite that simple remains a matter of debate.
One very interesting folkloric element is the North American idea of the "cakewalk." When we say something is a "cakewalk" that generally means some task is very easy to complete. But the roots of this term exist in slavery and post-emancipation racism. The cakewalk was an exaggerated dance that persons of color engaged in perhaps as a subtle mockery of their egotistic and ostentatious oppressors.³
More recently, Taylor Swift plays on the familiar magical forest imagery of much folklore in her 2020 album Folklore. Swift has become something of a folkloric creation of her own reportedly with a net worth of a billion dollars after her last Eras tour.
No comments:
Post a Comment