Great Readings in Folklore Studies
This curated reading list features the discipline-defining monographs, landmark theoretical papers, and seminal ethnographic studies that have shaped modern folkloristics. These works illustrate how folklorists analyze informal expressive culture, vernacular belief systems, artistic performance, and community traditions.
Foundations, Functions, and Disciplinary Paradigms
| Title | Author(s) |uniquestream.net | :--- | :--- | | Morphology of the Folktale | Vladimir Propp | | The Rites of Passage | Arnold van Gennep | | The Singer of Tales | Albert B. Lord | | “Four Functions of Folklore” in The Study of Folklore | William R. Bascom | | In Search of Authenticity: The Formation of Folklore Studies | Regina Bendix | | The Study of Folklore | Alan Dundes (ed.) |
Performance, Context, and Sociolinguistic Ethnography
| Title | Author(s) |
|---|---|
| Verbal Art as Performance | Richard Bauman |
| “Toward a Definition of Folklore in Context” in Toward New Perspectives in Folklore | Dan Ben-Amos |
| "In Vain I Tried to Tell You": Essays in Native American Ethnopoetics | Dell Hymes |
| Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache | Keith H. Basso |
| Voices of Modernity: Language Ideologies and the Politics of Inequality | Richard Bauman and Charles L. Briggs |
Narrative Theory, Fairy Tales, and Contemporary Legendry
| Title | Author(s) |
|---|---|
| Legend and Belief: Dialectics of a Folklore Genre | Linda Dégh |
| The European Folktale: Form and Nature | Max Lüthi |
| Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion: The Classical Genre for Children and the Process of Civilization | Jack Zipes |
| The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings | Jan Harold Brunvand |
| Aliens, Ghosts, and Cults: Legends We Live | Bill Ellis |
Vernacular Religion, Belief, and Experiential Traditions
| Title | Author(s) |
|---|---|
| The Terror That Comes in the Night: An Experience-Centered Study of Supernatural Assault Traditions | David J. Hufford |
| Haunting Experiences: Ghosts in Contemporary Folklore | Diane E. Goldstein, Sylvia Ann Grider, and Jeannie Banks Thomas |
| The Marrow of Human Experience: Essays on Folklore | William A. Wilson |
Folklife, Material Culture, and Digital Vernaculars
| Title | Author(s) |
|---|---|
| Passing the Time in Ballymenone: Culture and History of an Ulster Community | Henry Glassie |
| Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage | Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett |
| The Man-of-Words in the West Indies: Performance and the Communication of Poetics | Roger D. Abrahams |
| Folklore and the Internet: Vernacular Expression in a Digital World | Trevor J. Blank (ed.) |
| Memes in Digital Culture | Limor Shifman |