| Contents |
Folklore as a mirror of culture -- The study of folklore in literature and culture: identification and interpretation -- Metafolkore and oral literary criticism -- From etic to emic units in the structural study of folktales ; (postscript) the motif index and the tale type index: a critique -- How Indic parallels to the ballad of the "walled-up wife" reveal the pitfalls of parochial nationalistic folkloristics -- Structuralism and folklore ; (postscript) binary opposition in myth: the Propp/Lévi Strauss debate in retrospect -- On game morphology: a study of the structure of non-verbal folklore -- The devolutionary premise in folklore theory -- Folk ideas as units of worldview ; (postscript) worldview in folk narrative -- As the crow flies: a straightforward study of lineal worldview in American folk speech -- Much ado about "sweet bugger all": getting to the bottom of a puzzle in British folk speech -- Grouping lore: scientists and musicians: (A) science in folklore: folklore in science? ; (B) viola jokes: a study of second string humor -- Medical speech and professional identity: (A) the Gomer: a figure of American hospital folk speech ; (B) "when you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras": a folk medical diagnostic proverb -- Getting the folk and the lore together -- Gallus as phallus: a psychoanalytic cross-cultural consideration of the cockfight as fowl play -- The symbolic equivalence of allomotifs: towards a method of analyzing folktales -- Earth-diver: creation of the mythopoeic male ; (postscript) madness in method plus a plea for projective inversion in myth -- Theses on feces: scatological analysis: (A) the folklore of wishing wells ; (B) here I sit: a study of American latrinalia ; (C) the kushmaker -- The ritual murder or blood libel legend: a study of anti-Semitic victimization through projective inversion -- On the psychology of collecting folklore ; (postscript) chain letter: a folk geometric progression. |
| Abstract |
"The ... selection both surveys Alan Dundes's scholarship and opens a big window on the field of folklore studies. Simon Bronner begins the volume, which includes a new preface for the paperback edition, with a comprehensive intellectual biography and also introduces the individual essays, providing a thorough understanding of Dundes's contributions to folkloristics."--Back cover. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Genre/form | Essays. |
| ISBN | 1646420691 (paperback) |
| ISBN | 9781646420698 (paperback) |
