ENGH 591: Topics in Folklore Studies
ENGH 591-001: Appalachian Folklore
(Spring 2012)
04:30 PM to 07:10 PM R
Innovation Hall 215G
Section Information for Spring 2012
More than a century ago scholars, writers and journalists began capturing the national imagination with accounts of largely fictive realm set in the southern mountains. This course explores the production of folk culture in American society from two perspectives: first, as a cultural practice of "othering," whereby elite or dominate groups marginalize particular populations in space and time by assigning "folk" attributes to them; and second as a continually emerging body of tradition that resists that social location and marginalization. We will use phenomenological theory, along with neo-Marxist models of culture and society to examine the case of Appalachia.
Questions we will address include: How have images of cultural difference in literature, film and journalism and political rhetoric supported the domination of Appalachia? How do these images square with the identities mountain communities achieve for themselves through oral literature, music, architecture, craft and ritual? How is America's national myth legitimized or challenged in the work of ethnographers, filmmakers, journalists and writers? How is the struggle for control of natural resources and cultural images unfolding elsewhere in the "developing" world, and how does today's management of natural resources (e.g., coal mining, the Marcellus Shale natural gas reserve) benefit from 19th Century images of the "folksy" Appalachia?
ENGH 591 001 has an optional 1 credit field school in WV from May 20-27. There is an additional fee for the field school Students should contact the instructor for more information.
View 1 Other Section of this Course in this Semester »
Course Information from the University Catalog
Credits: 3
Enrollment limited to students with a class of Advanced to Candidacy, Graduate, Junior Plus, Non-Degree or Senior Plus.
Enrollment is limited to Graduate, Non-Degree or Undergraduate level students.
Students in a Non-Degree Undergraduate degree may not enroll.
This course is graded on the Graduate Regular scale.
The University Catalog is the authoritative source for information on courses. The Schedule of Classes is the authoritative source for information on classes scheduled for this semester. See the Schedule for the most up-to-date information and see Patriot web to register for classes.