| source Harvard (X) |
level |
department Folklore and Mythology (X) |
Reading (in translation) transcribed oral narratives, praise poems, autobiographies, plays and songs, in conjunction with historical and ethnographic sources, this seminar will attempt to understand the way in which (some) African women have shaped and been shaped by their societies, nations, and families, how they envision their lives in relation to these social groupings, and how they express their experiences through these various performances.
Score: 12.168173 Details | Listing | Web page
Rather than textual artifacts of a cultural past, Native American oral literatures are living traditions in particular landscapes, activities in which communities are engaged. Features trips to local Native places and close readings of recorded communal tellings and literary texts. Explores the role of oral traditions in Native American literature, emphasizing the intertextual and interdependent relationship between the oral and the written.
Score: 12.168173 Details | Listing | Web page
An examination of the ways in which the dancing body internalizes and communicates cultural knowledge to both dancer and observer. By participating in dance workshops, watching dance performances (live and on film), and reading ethnographic and theoretical texts, we attempt to understand the emergent meaning of dance performances from multiple perspectives.
Score: 12.168173 Details | Listing | Web page
Introduces concentrators to the study of traditions - their performance, collection, representation and interpretation. Both ethnographic and theoretical readings serve as the material for class discussion and the foundation for experimental fieldwork projects.
Score: 12.168173 Details | Listing | Web page
In the wake of the industrial revolution, John Ruskin argued for the social and moral value of handmade objects. The Arts and Crafts movement, the Bauhaus, and the Japanese Folk Craft movement were inspired in part by such ideas. And while popular or domestic practices of handmaking -- knitting, sewing, woodworking, etc. -- might seem quite separate from these movements, the current resurgence of handicrafts, fueled paradoxically by new medias and technologies, both echoes Ruskin's moral concerns and pushes at the boundaries separating high and low, art and craft. This seminar examines the historical, intellectual, and political influences on how handmade objects and the practices by which they are made are valued and experienced in the present day.
Score: 12.168173 Details | Listing | Web page
Human imagination has conjured two enduring mythic characters, which create habitable worlds for people in stories from cultures all over the world. Sometimes branded Hero, sometimes Trickster, these two share traits and antics, yet they seem to endorse fundamentally different values. This seminar examines both hero and trickster in several cultural contexts, comparing them with each other and with their correlates worldwide, primarily in oral traditions, but also where each has migrated to other media.
Score: 12.168173 Details | Listing | Web page
The development of folklore and mythology as fields of study, with particular attention to the methodological approaches suited to their areas of enquiry. Surveys the study of folklore and mythology in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but focuses especially on theoretical contributions to the study of folklore, mythology, and oral literature in recent decades. Readings from Bauman, Bronner, Dundes, Georges, Lord, Oring, Propp, Tedlock, and Zumwalt among many others.
Score: 12.168173 Details | Listing | Web page
Are quilts the great American (folk) art? From intricately stitched whole-cloth quilts, to the improvisational patchworks of Gee's Bend; from the graphic simplicity of Amish quilts to the cozy pastels of depression-era quilts; from the Aids Quilt to art quilts; quilts have taken on extraordinary significance in American culture. This class surveys the evolution of quilt-making as a social practice, considering the role of quilts in articulations of gender, ethnic, class and religious identities, and their positions within discourses of domesticity, technology, consumerism, and cultural hierarchy.
Score: 12.168173 Details | Listing | Web page
Advanced reading in topics not covered in regular courses.
Score: 12.168173 Details | Listing | Web page
Instruction and direction of reading on material not treated in regular courses of instruction; special work on topics in folklore, mythology, and oral literature. Normally available only to concentrators in Folklore and Mythology.
Score: 12.168173 Details | Listing | Web page
Instruction and direction of reading on material not treated in regular courses of instruction; special work on topics in folklore, mythology, and oral literature. Normally available only to concentrators in Folklore and Mythology.
Score: 12.168173 Details | Listing | Web page
Advanced reading in topics not covered in regular courses.
Score: 12.168173 Details | Listing | Web page
Reviews American popular culture at the extremes in light of theories about 'scapegoats', rumor (or moral) panics, and Internet hoaxes. Probable case studies include conspiracies about 9/11, "blood for oil", the CBS National Guard hoax, the Kennedy assassination, the Apollo 11 moon landing, Area 51, SRA, and ZOG.
Score: 12.168173 Details | Listing | Web page
null
Score: 12.168173 Details | Listing | Web page
null
Score: 12.168173 Details | Listing | Web page