Tania’s office: E2108
Sean’s office: Com 304B
Pat’s office: A2110
WEEK ONE: Introductions to the Folk and to Folklore
Assignments for Week One: READ: “Who Are the Folk?” pp. 1-19, and “The Number Three in American Culture,” pp.134-159 in Interpreting Folklore (Alan Dundes).
4/2:
9:30-11:30 Introductions/Syllabus; What is Folklore? (Sean)
12:30-2:30 Seminars
4/3:
9:30-11:30 Who are the Slavs? (Pat); Celts first on Slavic Territory (Tania)
12:30-2:30 Who are the Celts? (Sean)
4/4:
9:30-1:00 Folklore: Preservation/National Identity/Authenticity (Sean, Tania, Pat); Video: Russia: Hidden Memory (documentary, 1995; https://vimeo.com/40973227)
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WEEK TWO: Foundational Knowledge
Assignments for Week Two: For Wednesday the 11th, locate, write down, and bring with you ten items of folklore: a proverb, a song, or a family expression.
READ: “The Pagan Background” from Russian Folk Belief (Linda Ivanits), pp. 3-18; “Preface,” and then pp. 13-33 from Supernatural Beings from Slovenian Myth and Folktales (Monika Kropej); “Why We Became Religious” and “The Evolution of the Spirit World” (Marvin Harris), pp.15-18, from Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion; and “The Well of Her Memory” (Patricia Monaghan), from The Red-Haired Girl from the Bog, pp. 137-166.
Recommended, not required, reading: “Spirits of the House and Farmstead,” pp. 51-63, and “Spirits of the Forest, Waters and Fields,” pp. 64-82 (Ivanits); and “Snake” and “Dragon” (pp. 101-118) from Supernatural Beings from Slovenian Myth and Folktales (Kropej).
NOTE: Your first essay – on traditional belief systems in either Celtic or Slavic cultures – will be due on April 18. Check the website (under “Assignments”) for the actual assignment.
4/9:
9:30-11:30 Chthonic Forces and Animism (Sean)
12:30-2:30 Seminars
4/10:
9:30-11:30 Slavic Cosmology and “Dvoeverie” (“double faith”) (Tania)
12:30-2:30 Pre-Christian+Christian Symbiosis in the Carpathians (Pat)
4/11:
9:30-1:00 Students share folklore research
Ritual Bread: Faculty will make and discuss bread: Sean: arán donn (Irish brown bread); Pat: Ukrainian Pascha Bread (Easter bread); Tania: kosti svätých (Slovak “saints’ bones”)
4/14: all day Saturday! Sean-nós Northwest Irish Festival (COM building); Saturday workshops in music, dance, song, and the Irish language. Registration is already covered by your student fees. Note: Sat. evening concert will be in the TESC Recital Hall. If you wish to attend both days, go to https://www.seannos.org/ and pay $50 for the second day.
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WEEK THREE: Slavic Folklore
***Due 4/18: first essay–by 5 p.m.***
Assignments for Week Three: READ: Russian epic songs: “Volkh Vseslavyevich”; “Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber”; “Alyosha Popovich, His Squire Yekim, and Tugarin”; “Sadko” from An Anthology of Russian Folk Epic (trans. by James Bailey and Tatyana Ivanova); “The Book of Doves,” “Yegorij (St. George) and the Dragon”; Ukrainian epic songs: “Duma about Marusia from Bohuslav”; “Duma about the Flight of Three Brothers from the city of Azov” from Ukrainian Dumy (trans. by George Tarnawsky and Patricia Kilina); South Slavic epic songs: “The Tsar and the Girl”; “The Building of Skadar”; “The Fall of the Serbian Empire”; “The Kosovo Maiden”; “Marko Kraljavić Drinks Wine at Ramadan”; “A Maiden Outwits Marko”; “The Wife of Hasan Aga [Hasanaginica]” from Songs of the Serbian People: From the Collections of Vuk Karadžić (trans. and ed. by Milne Holton and Vasa D. Mihailovich).
Recommended reading: “The Ballad of ‘The Walled-Up Wife’” (Dundes, pp. 185-204) from The Walled-Up Wife: A Casebook (ed. by Alan Dundes).
4/16:
9:30-11:30 Slavic Epic Tradition among East and South Slavs: Epic Songs, Spiritual Songs, Ballads, and the Performance of epic songs by skomorokhi and kaliki (Pat and Tania)
12:30-2:30 Seminars
4/17:
9:30-11:30 Film and discussion: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (110 mins., 1965)
12:30-2:30 Discuss folklore depicted in the film (Pat and Tania)
4/18:
9:30-1:00 Folk Customs and Beliefs: Moments of transition in life and in the calendar year; the Cult of the Ancestors (Pat and Tania)
[FIRST PAPER DUE TODAY AT 5 PM]
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WEEK FOUR: Celtic Folklore
Assignments for Week Four: READ: “Texture, Text, and Context,” pp. 20-32, in Interpreting Folklore (Dundes) and selected passages from The Táin (pronounced “tawn”).
NOTE: Your second essay – to choose one folktale each from the Celtic and Slavic traditions and view them through a particular lens – is due 5/9.
4/23:
9:30-11:30 Celtic Epic Performance (The Táin)
12:30-2:30 Seminars
4/24:
9:30-11:30 Film and discussion: The Secret of Roan Inish (103 mins., 1994)
12:30-2:30 The Bard, Patronage, and Power
4/25:
9:30-1:00 Celtic Folk Customs and Beliefs
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WEEK FIVE: Mary Across Cultures / the Beginning of Summer / Foodways
Assignments for Week Five: READ: “Stovelore in Russian Folklife,” (Snejana Tempest) pp.1-14; “Food in the Rus’ Primary Chronicle,” (Horace Lunt), pp.15-30, both from Food in Russian History and Culture, ed. by Musya Glants and Joyce Toomre. Also, read “Outcast from Life’s Feast: Food and Hunger in Ireland” (Hasia Diner) pp. 84-113, from Hungering for America: Italian, Irish, and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration. Keep working on your second essay, due 5/9.
4/30:
9:30-11:30 Mary, the mother of Jesus, in Celtic Culture (Sean); Mary, the mother of God, in Slavic Culture (Pat, Tania)
12:30-2:30 Seminars
5/1:
9:30-11:30 The Beginning of Summer and the Celtic Calendar (Sean); and how the Slavs celebrate(d) the end of winter/beginning of summer: Morena and Juraj (Tania)
12:30-2:30 Potluck (finish by 1 pm); Celtic and Slavic Foodways and Drinkways (Sean, Pat, Tania)
5/2:
9:30-1:00 Pysanky Workshop (Pat)
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WEEK SIX: Folk Tales: The Bright Side (and some dark…)
***Due 5/18: second essay–by 5 p.m.***
Assignments for Week Six: READ: “The Hero Pattern and the Life of Jesus,” pp. 223-261, in Interpreting Folklore (Dundes). In addition, read the assigned folktales for this week.
NOTE: Begin preparations for your third and final essay. Identify one item/figure/event/custom/belief/etc. from either Slavic or Celtic folklore and folk life; research it; write up a 5-7-page research essay. Collect illustrations and plan a digital poster for the poster presentations in week 10. Rough draft is due May 16; final draft is due May 30.
5/7:
9:30-11:30 Tale Types and Archetypes (Sean)
12:30-2:30 Seminars: bring Dundes and the assigned folktales for discussion
5/8:
9:30-11:30 Women and Water and the Cailleach (Sean)
12:30-2:30 Baba Yaga (Tania) SEE FILM: Mimino
5/9:
9:30-1:00 Poster Workshops
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WEEK SEVEN: Folk Tales: The Dark Side (and some bright…)
***Due 5/16: rough draft of third essay–by 5 p.m.***
Assignments for Week Seven: READ: “Wet and Dry, the Evil Eye,” pp. 93-133, and “To Love My Father All” [re: King Lear], pp. 211-222, in Interpreting Folklore (Dundes), and “The Devil” from Russian Folk Belief, pp. 38-50 (Ivanits). In addition, read the assigned folktales for this week (three Slavic and three Celtic) and come to seminar prepared to discuss them.
Recommended reading: “Demons and Bewitched Souls,” pp. 179-215 from Supernatural Beings (Kropej). Locate the “Dark Emerald Tales” website and peruse the article “Irish Harbingers of Death and Reapers of the Soul.”
5/14:
9:30-11:30 Vampires, Sorcerers, and the Evil Eye (Sean and Tania)
12:30-2:30 Seminars
5/15:
9:30-11:30 Film and discussion: The Celtic Trilogy
12:30-2:30 Cross-seminar workshop: bring the folktales for this week
5/16:
9:30-1:00 Performance workshop and Prep for next week
[SECOND PAPER DUE 5/18 AT 5 PM]
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Week Eight: Folk Sounds and Steps
***Send digital posters to printer: Instructions and exact date will be given for this.***
Assignments for this week: Consult our WordPress site for this week’s reading assignments.
5/21:
9:30-11:30 Guest Presentation: Gerry O’Connor
12:30-2:30 Seminars
5/22:
9:30-11:30 Slavic Folk Music and Dance: Variety in the Slavic world (Pat and Tania)
12:30-2:30 Why the Violin? Why the Fiddle? (Sean)
5/23:
9:30-1:00 About Ethnomusicology and Folklore Fieldwork (Sean)
5/24:
8:00-11:00 PM Concert by Chirgilchin, a group of traditional musicians from the Republic of Tuva (a federal subject within Russia) at the Octapas Café, 414 E 4th Street, Olympia (optional)
[ROUGH DRAFT OF FINAL PAPER DUE 5/25]
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Week Nine: Cultural Appropriation and Refashioning
***Due 6/1: final draft of third essay–by 5 p.m.***
Assignments for this week: Consult our WordPress site for this week’s reading assignments.
NOTE: Posters are due to the poster printer this week (to be finalized later).
5/28:
Memorial Day; no classes; campus closed.
5/29:
9:30-11:30 Slavic Folklore and Nationalism; Folklore in the service of the state (Pat and Tania)
12:30-2:30 Celtic Folklore and Nationalism (Sean)
5/30:
9:30-1:00 Neo-Paganism (Sean and Tania)
[FINAL DRAFT OF THIRD ESSAY DUE 6/1]
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Week Ten: Student Poster Presentations and Final Potluck
Begin working on your self-evaluation and faculty evaluations.
NOTE: Bring something Slavic or Celtic for the Potluck on Wednesday!
6/4:
9:30-11:30 Poster Presentations
12:30-2:30 Poster Presentations
6/5:
9:30-11:30 Poster Presentations
12:30-2:30 Poster Presentations
6/6:
9:30-1:00 Poster Presentations and Potluck