Not available to order

Publication date:

01 August 1999

Length of book:

270 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781461637851

International folkloristics is a worldwide discipline in which scholars study various forms of folklore ranging from myth, folktale, and legend to custom and belief. Twenty classic essays, beginning with a piece by Jacob Grimm, reveal the evolving theoretical underpinnings of folkloristics from its nineteenth century origins to its academic coming-of-age in the twentieth century. Each piece is prefaced by extensive editorial introductions placing them in a historical and intellectual context. The twenty essays presented here, including several never published previously in English, will be required reading for any serious student of folklore.
In this brilliant volume Alan Dundes . . . has taken stock of folkloristic scholarship . . . . Most choices are undisputed, some may be surprising, others are true discoveries and revelations; but in each case Dundes offers deep insights into the workings of folklore and folkloristics and at the same time contributes to 19th and 20th century European and North American intellectual history in the best sense. The volume convincingly portrays and extends folkloristics and will certainly become one of its standard books.