This listing includes courses at the University of Virginia which may be of interest to students with more than a passing concern with the interdisciplinary field of folkloristics. Some of the courses listed provide a general introduction to folklore; others offer students a chance to study selected areas of folklore or specific topics; while still others are concerned with techniques and methodologies of study and documentation.
Courses are listed as "undergraduate" or "graduate" but 500 level courses are generally offered to graduate and upper level undergraduates. Also, some courses are offered simultaneously for undergraduate and graduate credit. Interested students are encouraged to contact the various schools and departments for relevant information on course numbering, prerequisites, times that courses will be offered, and other related matters.
For information on courses or faculty, click on the appropriate link below.
ANTH 235: INTRODUCTION TO FOLKLORE [C. Perdue]
Introduction to the materials and methods of folklore study. The course is also intended to be an introduction to folklore scholarship and to the history of the discipline. Materials used as examples in this course--narratives, songs, etc.--are drawn about equally from European American and African American sources.
ANTH 336: LIFE HISTORY AND ORAL HISTORY [C. Perdue]
Cross listed in the English Department as: ENAM 336.
An introduction to oral history methodology and to the life history as a sociocultural document. Readings will focus on various uses that have been made of oral history and of life histories. Students will conduct interviews and write a life history.
ANTH 732: AMERICAN FOLKLORE [C. Perdue]
Cross listed in the English Department as: ENAM 885.
This course will focus primarily on Anglo- and Afro-American traditional culture and, within that domain, deal with problems of definition, origin, collection, and analysis of the main genres of folklore--narrative and song.
ANTH 533: ETHNOHISTORY: RESEARCH AND METHODS [C. Perdue]
This course, for graduate students and advanced undergraduates, offers an introduction to ethnohistory, considers various sources and methods for conducting ethnohistorical research, and requires a practical application of these to an historical case study in Albemarle County. Conceptions of group identity and culture, or "ethnos"--based on race, ethnicity, class, or situation--and of the nexus between history and anthropology will be discussed, with some consideration given to contemporary ethnohistorical case studies that address issues of contact, conflict, control, and commodification.
ANTH 734: LIFE HISTORY AND ORAL HISTORY [C. Perdue]
Cross listed in the English Department as: ENAM 734.
This course offers an in-depth study of the life history and its use as a sociocultural document, and of oral history methodology. Students will read and critique various works, both historical and contemporary, that use oral history or present what various scholars have termed: personal narrative, personal experience story, life story, life history, conversational narrative, or negotiated biography. Practical experience will be gained in conducting interviews and writing life histories.
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EDLF 876: FOLKLORE AND EDUCATION [J. Bunch]
This course introduces the participants to the field of Folklore and Folklife studies. This exciting branch of the humanities provides an especially powerful framework for understanding educational patterns, problems and issues in traditional and modern societies. The course blends the substance and methodology of the discipline with the pragmatic needs of the educator in the Schools.
ENAM 336: LIFE HISTORY AND ORAL HISTORY [C. Perdue]
Cross listed in the Anthropology Department as ANTH 336
An introduction to oral history methodology and to the life history as a sociocultural document. Readings will focus on various uses that have been made of oral history and of life histories. Students will conduct interviews and write a life history.
ENAM 385: FOLKLORE IN AMERICA [C. Perdue]
This course will focus primarily on European American and African American traditional culture and, within that domain, deal with problems of definition, origin, collection, and analysis of the main genres of folklore--narrative and song.
ENAM 734: LIFE HISTORY AND ORAL HISTORY [C. Perdue]
Cross listed in the Anthropology Department as ANTH 734.
This course offers an in-depth study of the life history and its use as a sociocultural document, and of oral history methodology. Students will read and critique various works, both historical and contemporary, that use oral history or present what various scholars have termed: personal narrative, personal experience story, life story, life history, conversational narrative, or negotiated biography. Practical experience will be gained in conducting interviews and writing life histories.
ENAM 885: AMERICAN FOLKLORE [C. Perdue]
Cross listed in the Anthropology Department as: ANTH 732.
This course will focus primarily on Anglo- and Afro-American traditional culture and, within that domain, deal with problems of definition, origin, collection, and analysis of the main genres of folklore--narrative and song.
MUSI 208: BLACK POPULAR PERFORMANCE [K. Gaunt]
The instructor's aim in this course is to help not only those "hyped" on hip-hop, but also the occasional listener and those who call themselves musicians (classical, jazz, etc.) learn to practice and understand the musical ideals of black performance that make hip-hop musically and culturally complex. The intent of this course is to show the historical and cultural meanings of popular musicking in African American culture (1970 to present); to define and demonstrate through practice and performance how the principle aesthetics of sound and ideal approaches to creating music in African American contexts are socially learned; and to explore the cultural politics of gender in African American performance that shapes notions of power in rapping and styles of presentation in public or commercial contexts.
MUSI 369: AFRICAN DRUMMING AND DANCE ENSEMBLE [M. Kisliuk]
This is a practical, hands-on course focusing on several music/dance forms from West Africa (Ghana, Togo) and Central Africa (BaAka pygmies), with the intention of performing at the end of the semester. We will give special attention to developing tight ensemble dynamics, aural musicianship, and a polymetric sensibility.
MUSI 422/522 MUSIC & THE BLACK ATLANTIC [K. Gaunt]
This seminar will trace the ways in which diasporan musicking reflects and reintegrates "African" musical ideals into contemporary cultural identity. We will explore the integration of musical movement and syncretized languages and identity ("Old World" & "New World"; Africa and the Americas) to imagine and critique "the contrasting populations of the modern, western, African diaspora." We will conclude the course with a look at minstrelsy and jazz--an American and African-American form--in twentieth-century South Africa. Ultimately, we will try to understand the ways in which memories of "Africa" shape contemporary musicking.
MUSI 423/523: ISSUES IN ETHNOMUSICOLOGY: AN INTRODUCTION [K. Gaunt]
In this seminar, we will explore models for analyzing music not simply as sound or as a means of artistic expression, but as performance in complex social networks and as means of social communication (explicit and esoteric). Observations of performance and interaction with performers will be a critical feature of the course. We will examine some critical issues facing ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, and individuals who reflect and write about music as complex cultural experience and performance. How to write an ethnography and the issues one confronts in the process will be addressed in readings and discussion.
MUSI 424/524: PERFORMING MODERNITIES AND ANTIQUITIES [M. Kisliuk]
This course focuses on how people perform themselves as part of a modern world (or, by contrast, define themselves or others as distinct from that world). Modernity is relative, and the performed symbols and signs of modernity are continually transforming. The paradigm of modernity thus comes to serve as a lens through which to view cultural processes, social politics, and aesthetics. Case studies will span from urban, suburban, and rural subcultures in the U.S. to culture groups/contexts around the world such as Japanese bluegrass bands, the klezmer "revival," BaAka "pygmies" in Central Africa, bluegrass and old time performances, and performance of "living history" in Williamsburg and Mansassas Virginia.
SLFK 201: INTRODUCTION TO SLAVIC FOLKLORE [A. Ingram] [Course description not available yet; contact instructor].
SLFK 203: TERROR AND TABOO IN RUSSIAN CHILDLORE [J. Lacoss]
Sex and violence permeate children's folklore. Children are exposed to questionable material in such genres as lullabies, folk tales, jokes, rhymes, and ghost stories. Through application of contemporary folklore and psychological theories, students will examine Russian and American children's folklore to determine their functions in socialization and in the formation of national identity. The course will focus on comparison of patterns of cultural identity to identify construction and interpret themes.
SLFK 211: TALE AND LEGEND [N. Kononenko]
The study of the folktale traditions of the Eastern Slavs, primarily the Russians and the Ukrainians. The course will cover various theories of folk prose narrative and discuss the relationships between folktales and society and folktales and child development. Topics covered will include related prose narrative forms, such as legend, And related forms of child socialization, such as folk children's games.
SLFK 212: RITUALS AND FAMILY LIFE [N. Kononenko]
The rituals of birth, marriage, and death as practiced in 19th century peasant Russia and in Russia today and the oral literature associated with these rituals. The course will also cover family patterns, child socialization and child rearing practices, gender issues, and problems of the elderly in their 19th century and current manifestations.
SLFK 213: STORY AND HEALING [R. Saury and J. Alexander]
The function of narrative in helping peoples cope with war, historical calamity, social and natural disaster. Focus will be on Russian heroic epic (byliny) and Ukrainian epic (dumy). Special attention will be paid to modern material, performers and similarities between performers and shamans.
SLFK 214: RITUAL AND DEMONOLOGY [N. Kononenko]
Russian and Ukrainian folk belief as it manifests itself in village life, house and clothing types, foodways, farming practices and festivals. Focus will be on the festivals which developed out of the agrarian calendar, such as Christmas and Easter, and their Christian, pre-Christian, and Soviet forms. Special attention will be paid to lower mythology, the spirits believed to inhabit the house and farmstead and to influence crops, people, and farm animals.
SLAV 236: DRACULA [J. Perkowski]
An introduction to Slavic civilization and folklore with special emphasis on primitive religion and lower mythology. Starting with an examination of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, and through it Slavic folkloric vampirism, Western perceptions and misperceptions of Slavic culture are explored and explicated.
SLAV 215: MAGIC AND MEANING [N. Kononenko]
Magic is that which defies logic yet seems to have a logic of its own. This course will examine the nature and the use of magic, both positive and negative. It will look at magic acts: those done at no particular time, such as charms to win love, herbs to cure illness, and divination to predict the weather, and magic connected to certain times of year, namely ritual acts intended to insure crop and human fertility. The course will also look at magic people, those believed born with magic powers and those who acquired them through training.
SLAV 511: SLAVIC FOLKTALE [N. Kononenko]
The study of the folktale tradition of the Eastern Slavs, primarily the Russians and the Ukrainians. The course will cover the history of Russian and Ukrainian tale collection, classification, publication, and scholarship. Related genres will be examined, as will Russian and Soviet theories of the origin and function of the tale and the role of tales in socialization.
SLAV 512: LIFE CYCLE RITUAL [N. Kononenko]
The rituals of birth, marriage, and death as practiced by the Russians and other Slavs and the oral literature associated with these rituals. The course will emphasize Russian and other Slavic ethnographic materials, theories of collecting and scholarship, theories of ritual and family life. Ethnographic materials and Slavic theoretical works will be read in the original.
SLAV 513: SLAVIC HEROIC EPIC [N. Kononenko]
The epic poetries of the Russians, Ukrainians, and the South Slavic peoples. The course will begin with an examination of epic among the Slavic peoples and proceed to an examination of related poetic forms, namely historical songs, ballads and religious songs. Events believed to be "true" will also be examined and the course will cover legends, fabulates and memorates. Special attention will be paid to professional and semi-professional performers, their social position, their relationship to the church, their learning and transmission techniques.
SLAV 514: AGRARIAN RITUAL AND MATERIAL CULTURE [N. Kononenko]
This course will deal with Russian and Ukrainian lower mythology, the spirits of the house, the barn, the field, the stream, and the forest. It will also cover the basics of East Slavic ethnography: house layout and village layout, folk decorative arts, clothing and clothing types, foodways and food exchange. The course will deal with farming, farm implements and their manufacture, and the agricultural calendar year. The calendar year will be examined also in terms of agrarian magic, festival, and ritual. A goal of the course will be to extract patterns of folk belief which might then be applied outside folklore: to literature, to history, to contemporary Russian and Ukrainian popular culture.
SLAV 536: SLAVIC MYTHOLOGY [J. Perkowski]
The readings and lectures are divided into four categories: I. General Mythology, II. History, III. Orthodoxy, and IV. Slavic Mythology (upper and lower). In the first a theoretical groundwork is laid. In the second a historical background is presented. In the third a theological framework is provided and in the fourth both the ancient gods and the lesser spirits and demons are studied in their pre- and post-Christian contexts. Each student chooses a specialized topic such as: "Do the Ancient Slavic Gods Live on in the Saints?" or "Norse Influence on Slavic Mythology" and proceeds to present it orally in a seminar format and then again, improved and expanded, in written form.
SLAV 537: SOUTH SLAVIC FOLKLORE [J. Perkowski]
The readings and lectures are divided into four categories: I. Historical and Ethnographic Background, II. Village Studies, III. Material and Spiritual Culture of the Bulgarians, and IV. Material and Spiritual Culture of the Serbs. In the first a historical and ethnographic background of the Balkan peoples will be presented. In the second two village studies, one Bulgarian and the other Serbian, will be analyzed. In the third the material culture and oral lore of the Bulgarians will be studied, and in the last the material culture and oral lore of the Serbs will be studied.
Alexander, John
Manager, Instructional Technology, ITC
Roberson Media Center, Clemons Library
243-6619 Email jaa9n@virginia.EDU
John Alexander WebPage
Bunch, John B.
Assoc. Professor, School of Education
Ruffner Hall, 208
924-0834 Email jbb2s@Virginia.EDU
Gaunt, Kyra
Asst. Professor, McIntire Dept. of Music
Old Cabell Hall 215
924-6501 Email kg6j@virginia.EDU
Kyra Gaunt WebPage
Ingram, Anne>br>
Lecturer, Dept. of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Robertson Media Center, Clemons Library
243-6600 Email ami2f@virginia.EDU
Kisliuk, Michelle
Asst. Professor, McIntire Dept. of Music
Old Cabell Hall 214
924-3108 Email mkisliuk@virginia.EDU
Kononenko, Natalie
Assoc. Professor, Dept. of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Cabell Hall 109
924-3554 Email nkm@Virginia.EDU
Lacoss, Jan
Lecturer, Dept. of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Hotel D, 24 East Range
982-2815 Email jl2j@Virginia.EDU
Jan Lacoss WebPage
Martin-Perdue, Nancy J.
Scholar-in-Residence, Dept. of Anthropology
Brooks Hall B001
924-6823 Email np8h@Virginia.EDU
Perdue, Charles L.
Professor, Depts. of Anthropology and English
Brooks Hall B001
924-6823 Email clp5a@Virginia.EDU
Perkowski, Jan L.
Professor, Dept. of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Cabell Hall 105
924-3548/924-6686 Email rz@Virginia.EDU
Saury, Rachel
Lecturer, Dept. of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Cabell Hall 218
924-6847 Email res4n@virginia.EDU