Notable Folklore Books and Journals

One of the best ways to learn about what folklore is and how folklorists do their work is to read the books folklorists have published. Though no one list can include all the many good books that have been and are still being published about folklore, or all the folk traditions that folklorists study, this list is a start. These books should be available through a good public or university library; most of them also can be purchased from the university press that published them, at a good bookstore, or online.

To learn about current work in the field of folklore, you should also become familiar with the world's leading folklore journals, which contain articles, opinions, research reports, and reviews of folklorists' work of all kinds.

1. Folklore Textbooks

This is a list of some of the general college-level folklore textbooks published in recent years. The edited volumes on this list contain essays by many folklorists.

Bauman, Richard, ed. Folklore, Cultural Performances, and Popular Entertainments: A Communications-Centered Handbook. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Brunvand, Jan Harold. The Study of American Folklore. 4^th edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 1998.

, ed. Readings in American Folklore. New York: W.W. Norton, 1979.

Dorson, Richard, ed. Folklore and Folklife: An Introduction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.

. Handbook of American Folklore. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986.

Dundes, Alan. Interpreting Folklore. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980.

, ed. The Study of Folklore. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1965.

, ed. International Folkloristics: Classic Contributions by the Founders of Folklore. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 1999.

Fine, Elizabeth. The Folklore Text: From Performance to Print. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1984, 1994.

Georges, Robert, and Michael Owen Jones. Folkloristics: An Introduction. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995.

Oring, Elliott, ed. Folk Groups and Folklore Genres: An Introduction. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1986.

, ed. Folk Groups and Folklore Genres: A Reader. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1989.

Sims, Martha, and Martine Stephens. Living Folklore: An Introduction to the Study of People and Their Traditions. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2005.

Toelken, Barre. The Dynamics of Folklore. 2^nd Edition. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1996.

Yoder, Don, ed. American Folklife. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1976.

2. Folklore Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

Axelrod, Alan, and Harry Oster, The Penguin Dictionary of American Folklore. New York: Penguin, 2000.

Bronner, Simon J., ed. Encyclopedia of American Folklife. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2006.

Brunvand, Jan Harold, ed. American Folklore: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1996

Green, Thomas A., ed. Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Beliefs, Customs, Tales, Music, and Art. 2 vols. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1997.

3. Books about Fieldwork

"Fieldwork" is the name folklorists give to their activity of working with other people to learn about those people’s folk traditions and cultural heritage. As part of fieldwork, folklorists interview people and document (through writing, photography, audio recording, video, and film) many of their activities (for example, their storytelling, celebrations, foodways, work, music, dance, or art). Through fieldwork, folklorists also build personal relationships with those they study, who in many ways are folklorists’ partners is understanding culture. These books by folklorists introduce many of the best practices, both practical and interpersonal, of doing good fieldwork.

Briggs, Charles L. Learning How to Ask. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Georges, Robert A., and Michael Owen Jones. People Studying People: The Human Element in Fieldwork. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.

Goldstein, Kenneth S. A Guide for Field Workers in Folklore. Hatboro, Pennsylvania: Folklore Associates, Inc., 1974.

Jackson, Bruce. Fieldwork. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987.

Ives, Edward D. The Tape-Recorded Interview: A Manual for Fieldworkers in Folklore and Oral History. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1974.

4. Chicago Folklore Prize Recipients

First awarded in 1928, the Chicago Folklore Prize, awarded to the author(s) of the best book-length work of folklore scholarship for the year, is the oldest international award recognizing excellence in folklore scholarship. Occasionally, a joint recipient or a second-place recipient are also selected. The prize is offered jointly by the American Folklore Society and the University of Chicago.

From its inception, the administrators and judges for the prize have interpreted “folklore” in a broad and inclusive sense, and winners have traditionally come from the fields of folklore study, cultural studies, ethnomusicology, literary study, anthropology, sociology, cultural geography, and dance ethnology. The recent recipients of the prize provide a sense of the disciplinary range represented in the competition.

1998: Jane Sugarman. Engendering Song: Singing and the Social Order at Prespa Albanian Weddings (University of Chicago Press)

Second place: Regina Bendix. In Search of Authenticity: The Formation of Folklore Studies (University of Wisconsin Press)

1999: Susan Slyomovics. The Object of Memory: Arab and Jew Narrate the Palestinian Village (University of Pennsylvania Press)

Second place: Harold Scheub. Story (University of Wisconsin Press)

2000: Glenn Hinson. Fire in My Bones: Transcendence and the Holy Spirit in African American Gospel (University of Pennsylvania Press)

Second place: John D. Niles. Homo Narrans: The Poetics and Anthropology of Oral Tradition (University of Pennsylvania Press)

2001: Daniel W. Patterson. A Tree Accurst: Bobby McMillon and Stories of Frankie Silver (University of North Carolina Press)

2002: Linda Dégh. Legend and Belief: Dialectics of a Folklore Genre (Indiana University Press)

2003: Bill C. Malone. Don't Get Above Your Raisin': Country Music and the Southern Working Class (University of Illinois Press)

2004: Enrique R. Lamadrid. Hermanitos Comanchitos: Indo-Hispano Rituals of Captivity and Redemption (University of New Mexico Press); and Barre Toelken. The Anguish of Snails: Native American Folklore in the West (Utah State University Press)

2005: Marcia Gaudet. Carville: Remembering Leprosy in America (University Press of Mississippi)

2006: Jo Farb Hernández. Forms of Tradition in Contemporary Spain (University Press of Mississippi)

2007: Cristina Bacchilega. Legendary Hawai’i and the Politics of Place: Tradition, Translation, and Tourism (University of Pennsylvania Press); and James P. Leary. Polkabilly: How the Goose Island Ramblers Redefined American Folk Music (Oxford University Press)

5. Publications of the American Folklore Society, New Series

In the 1980s and 1990s the American Folklore Society assisted university presses in the publication of excellent books about folklore, folk art, folk culture, and folklore studies. Readers from the Society helped these presses select the most worthy folklore work submitted to them for publication.

Allen, Barbara, and Thomas J. Schlereth, eds. Sense of Place: American Regional Cultures. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1990.

Allen, Ray. Singing in the Spirit: African-American Sacred Quartets in New York City. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.

Appadurai, Arjun, Frank Korom, and Margaret Mills, eds. Gender, Genre, and Power in South Asian Expressive Traditions. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.

Bacon-Smith, Camille. Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.

Barden, Thomas. Virginia Folk Legends. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991.

Baron, Robert, and Nicholas R. Spitzer. Public Folklore. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.

Brandes, Stanley. Metaphors of Masculinity: Sex and Status in Andalusian Folklore. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1980.

Briggs, Charles L., and Julian Josue Vigil, eds. The Lost Gold Mine of Juan Mondragon: A Legend from New Mexico Performed by Melaquias Romero. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1990.

Bronner, Simon J. American Folklore Studies: An Intellectual History. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1986.

Bronner, Simon J. Folklife Studies from the Gilded Age: Object, Rite, and Custom in Victorian America. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1987.

Bronner, Simon, ed. Tradition and Creativity: Essays in Honor of Wilhelm Nicolaisen. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1992.

Butler, Gary. Saying Isn't Believing: Conversation, Narrative, and the Discourse of Belief in a French Newfoundland Community. St. John's, Newfoundland: Institute of Social and Economic Research, 1991.

Camp, Charles, ed. Time and Temperature. Washington: American Folklore Society, 1989.

Clements, William M, ed. 100 Years of American Folklore Studies: A Conceptual History. Washington: American Folklore Society, 1988.

Conway, Cecilia. African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia: A Study of Folk Traditions. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995.

Del Giudice, Luisa. Studies in Italian American Folklore. Logan: Utah State University, 1993.

Dubois, Thomas. Finnish Folk Poetry and the Kalevala. New York: Garland Press, 1995.

Feintuch, Burt, ed. The Conservation of Culture: Folklorists and the Public Sector. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1987.

Feld, Steven. Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics and Song in Kaluli Expression. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982 (revised 1990).

Fine, Gary Alan. Manufacturing Tales: Sex and Money in Contemporary Legends. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1992.

Giray, Eren. Nsiirin! Nsiirin! Jula Folktales from West Africa. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1996.

Glassie, Henry. Passing the Time in Ballymenone: Culture and History of an Ulster Community. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.

Green, Archie. Wobblies, Pile Butts, and Other Heroes: Labor Explorations. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993.

Halpert, Herbert, and J.D.A. Widdowson. Folktales of Newfoundland. New York: Garland Press, 1996.

Haring, Lee. Dialogues in Madagascar. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.

Holtzberg-Call, Maggie. The Lost World of the Craft Printer. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992.

Hufford, David J. The Terror That Comes in the Night: An Experience-Centered Study of Supernatural Assault Traditions. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.

Hufford, Mary. Chaseworld: Foxhunting and Storytelling in New Jersey's Pine Barrens. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.

Hufford, Mary, ed. Conserving Culture: A New Discourse on Heritage. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994.

Ives, Edward D. George Magoon and the Down East Game War: History, Folklore, and the Law. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988.

Jackson, Bruce, ed. Teaching Folklore. Buffalo: Documentary Research, Inc., 1984 (revised 1989).

Jackson, Bruce, Michael Taft, and Harvey Axlerod, eds. The Centennial Index: 100 Years of the Journal of American Folklore. Washington: American Folklore Society, 1988.

Jones, Michael Owen. Craftsman of the Cumberlands: Tradition and Creativity. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1990.

Jones, Michael Owen. Putting Folklore to Use: Essays on Applied Folkloristics. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1994.

Jordan, Rosan A., and Susan J. Kalcik, eds. Women's Folklore, Women's Culture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985.

Kapchan, Deborah. Gender on the Market: The Hybridization of Cultural Forms in Morocco. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996.

Kodish, Debora. Good Friends and Bad Enemies: Robert Winslow Gordon and the Study of American Folksong. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986.

Lawless, Elaine. Handmaidens of the Lord: Women Pentecostal Preachers and Traditional Religion. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988.

Lawless, Elaine. Holy Women, Wholly Women: Sharing Ministries of Wholeness Through Life Stories and Reciprocal Ethnography. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.

McCarthy, William B. Jack in Two Worlds: Contemporary North American Tales and Their Tellers. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.

Mills, Margaret A. Rhetorics and Politics in Afghan Traditional Storytelling. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.

Narayan, Kirin. Storytellers, Saints, and Scoundrels: Folk Narrative in Hindu Religious Teaching. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989.

Neustadt, Kathy. Clambake: A History and Celebration of an American Tradition. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1992.

O'Connor, Bonnie. Healing Traditions: Alternative Medicine and the Health Professions. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995.

Pearson, Barry Lee. Virginia Piedmont Blues: The Lives and Art of Two Virginia Bluesmen. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990.

Pershing, Linda. The Ribbon Around the Pentagon: Peace by Piecemakers. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1996.

Porter, James, and Herschel Gower. Jeannie Robertson: Emergent Singer, Transformative Voice. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995.

Prahlad, Sw. Anand. African-American Proverbs in Context. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 1996.

Radner, Joan N. Feminist Messages: Coding in Women's Folk Culture. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993.

Renwick, Roger DeV. English Folk Poetry: Structure and Meaning. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1980.

Rodriguez, Sylvia. The Matachines Dance: Ritual Symbolism and Interethnic Relations in the Upper Rio Grande Valley. Santa Fe: University of New Mexico Press, 1996.

Rosenberg, Neil V., ed. Transforming Tradition: Folk Music Revivals Examined. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993.

Santino, Jack. Miles of Smiles, Years of Struggle: Stories of Black Pullman Porters. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989.

Sered, Susan Starr. Women As Ritual Experts. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Seriff, Suzanne Katherine. Snakes, Sirens, Virgins, and Whores: The Politics of Representation of a Mexican-American Folk Artist. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997.

Slobin, Mark, ed. and tr. Old Jewish Folk Music: The Collections and Writing of Moshe Beregovski. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.

Sutton-Smith, Brian. The Folkstories of Children. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1980.

Taylor, Lawrence. Occasions of Faith: An Anthropology of Irish Catholics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995.

Toelken, Barre. Morning Dew and Roses: Nuance, Metaphor, and Meaning in Folksongs. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995.

Vlach, John Michael. Plain Painters: Making Sense of American Folk Art. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988.

Webber, Sabra J. Romancing the Real: Folklore and Ethnographic Representation in North Africa. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.

Weigle, Marta. Creation and Procreation: Feminist Reflections of Mythologies of Cosmogony and Parturition. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989.

Weigle, Marta, and Peter White, eds. The Lore of New Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1988.

Young, Katharine, ed. Bodylore. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1993.

Young, M. Jane. Signs from the Ancestors: Zuni Cultural Symbolism and Perceptions of Rock Art. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1988.

Zumwalt, Rosemary Lévy. American Folklore Scholarship: A Dialogue of Dissent. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988.

. Wealth and Rebellion: Elsie Clews Parsons, Anthropologist and Folklorist. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992.