Interpreting Folklore

by Alan Dundes

" . . . Dundes has produced a work which will be useful to both students and teachers who wish to broaden their understanding of modern folklore." ―Center for Southern Folklore Magazine

"It is impossible ever to remain unimpressed with [Dundes'] excursuses, however much one may be in disagreement (or not) with his conclusions." ―Forum for Modern Language Studies

Often controversial, Alan Dundes's scholarship is always provocative, perceptive, and intelligent. His concern here is to assess the material folklorists have so painstakingly amassed and classified, to interpret folklore, and to use folklore to increase our understanding of human nature and culture.

Genres: Folklore, Nonfiction, Anthropology

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1980

About the author

Alan Dundes was a folklorist at the University of California, Berkeley. His work was said to have been central to establishing the study of folklore as an academic discipline. He wrote 12 books, both academic and popular, and edited or co-wrote two dozen more. One of his most notable articles was called "Seeing is Believing" in which he indicated that Americans value the sense of sight more than the other senses.

Reviews

[Boweavil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant collection of (at that time) controversial and groundbreaking analyses of a variety of folklore types, both American (his specialty) and that of other cultures. When first encountering Dundes in grad school, I became a fan of his approach and still find him thought provoking all these years later.

[Mark Isaak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dundes was one of the most learned figures in folklore in the 20th century, and I highly recommend the books he has edited. This book, however, consists of his own scholarly works on interpretations of folklore, and those suffer from his reliance on Freudian psychoanalysis as the interpretive framework. This is particularly evident in "A Psychoanalytic Study of the Bullroarer", which today reads as a study in how to make up plausible-sounding shit (sometimes literal shit) from the flimsiest of excuses. Many of the articles have some interesting tidbits to be found among the psychobabble, and the articles on the number three and on male chauvanism are interesting just to see the impressive lists of examples Dundes has compiled, but most of this book, I'm afraid, will go the same way of the solar myth interpretations. (And ironically, Dundes sees the problems with solar interpretations, but does not see that the same sort of problems bedevil his work.)

[Bookshire Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy Dundes's lucid and slightly sarcastic voice. The collection of essays is readable and full of compelling arguments.

[Brad · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is pretty dated now but will be of interest with respect to the history of the discipline of folklore.

[Ahmed]

A good book