Sub: Introduction to Folklore

Sub code: HS 407

Dept. of HSS

HS Introduction to Folklore 3-0-0-6

Syllabus:
Understanding what is Folk Culture; Situating folk cultures in folk cultural productions and folklores; Rural and Urban
Folk; Print And Oral Cultural Forms of Folklore; Different Narratives and Texts – Idioms, Fables, Episodes, Stories,
Songs, Performances; Historical trajectory of folklores from pre-agricultural society to globalized world; Exploring the
folkloric elements in modern and new age mass media like Television, Internet / Digital World and Social Media;
Conclusion – Essential Roles and Functions of Folklore in Societies
Texts:

1. Jane Yolen (Ed), Favorite Folktales from Around the World, 1986.
2. Romila Thapar, Indian Tales, 1991.

References:

1. Paul Smith, Perspectives on Folklore and Popular Culture, 1998.

2. Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson, The Oral History Reader, 1998.
3. Alan Dundes, The Meaning of Folklore, 2007.

Course Outcomes:

1. To historically understand folkloristics and its relevance in modern times.

2. To conceptualize the forms of folk cultures, their modes of production, and their social significance.
3. To relate mass media and digital technology towards evolutionary folkloristics.
4. To read and interpret texts through structural study of folk cultural productions.
5. To understand the relationship between folkloristics, textuality, and semiotics.