ENGH 315: Folklore and Folklife

ENGH 315-001: Folklore and Folklife
(Spring 2026)

01:30 PM to 02:45 PM TR

Thompson Hall 1018

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Section Information for Spring 2026

This course equips students with the tools to identify, document, and analyze folklore’s role in our everyday lives. Rather than simply a checklist of cultural artifacts or genres – stories, customs, handcrafts – we explore how folklore operates as an unofficial body of cultural knowledge and aesthetic practices, and as a communicative process that incorporates both continuity and creativity. This frees us from the notion that “the folk” are always situated elsewhere or in the past, by shifting our attention to the artistry and agency of those who perform and share folklore in specific contexts for specific purposes. We investigate, for example, how folklore adapts to changes in technology, and how it intersects in often unexpected ways with popular and elite cultures. We consider how folklore serves not only to create, maintain and express senses of identity among groups, but also to communicate social difference, tensions and resistance.

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Course Information from the University Catalog

Credits: 3

Topics include folktales, personal narratives, legends, proverbs, jokes, folk songs, folk art and craft, and folk architecture. Considers ethnicity, community, family, festival, folklore in literature, and oral history. Discusses traditions in students' own lives. Offered by English. Limited to three attempts.
Mason Core: Mason Core, Arts, Just Societies
Recommended Prerequisite: Satisfaction of University requirements in 100-level English and in Mason Core literature.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Grading:
This course is graded on the Undergraduate Regular scale.

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