Folklore 101: An Accessible Introduction to Folklore Studies

by Jeana Jorgensen

When's the last time you got to pick a folklorist's brain?
Did you know memes count as folklore?
Or that folklorists assign numbers to fairy tales to keep track of them all?

The field of folklore studies is over two centuries old, and it's full of amazing insights about human behavior, creativity, and community. Folklore studies is as interdisciplinary as it gets, squished somewhere between anthropology and linguistics and religious studies and comparative literature and more. It’s all about the informal human interactions, the million tiny acts and stories and beliefs and arts that function as social glue even if they seem beneath notice. Do traditional holiday foods have a deeper meaning? Yep. Same with folk music, ballads, proverbs, jokes, urban legends, body art, and a ton more genres covered in this book.

Is the whole book as easy to read and irreverent as this description? Yep. This fun, accessible guide to the academic study of folklore packs in a college class's worth of material, from basic concepts and major folklore genres to special topics based on identity, fancy theories, and more.

If you've always wanted to take a folklore class, or you're a writer or artist using folklore in your work, or you're just generally interested in the topic, this is the book for you!

“This wonderfully insightful book introduces the reader to folklore with warmth and good humor. Students and others interested in folklore will love it!” - Libby Tucker, Distinguished Service Professor of English, Binghamton University and author of Haunted Ghostlore of American College Campuses

“Dr. Jeana Jorgensen knows her stuff and, just as importantly, knows how to communicate it. Folklore 101 is a treasure trove of knowledge, the kind it would take years of college courses to accumulate yourself. If you're curious about academic folklore, this clear, engaging book is where you want to start." – Dr. Sara Cleto, co-founder of The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic

Genres: Folklore, Nonfiction, Fairy Tales, History

342 pages, Paperback

Published October 29, 2021

About the author

Jeana Jorgensen earned her PhD in folklore at Indiana University, and has since held a number of teaching positions, from UC Berkeley to state and private schools throughout the Midwest. With nearly 30 academic articles and book chapters to her name, she also focuses on making folklore research widely available to the general public.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 4½ stars.

A great introduction to the field of folklore.

Written in a conversational, occasionally humorous tone, Folklore 101 covers the basic ideas of folklore, its many 'genres', and several special topics (such as women's folklore, coding, and some important but outdated theories). Each topic is covered in a bite-sized chapter, allowing for a strong focus on one specific idea at a time.

Jorgensen is also not afraid of discussing the more unfortunate aspects of her field's past, providing perspective and showing the evolution from more stereotypical ideas of what folklore 'should' be to the broader, but also more inclusive, field that it is today.

Folklore 101 is a work focused on making the academic accessible, and on that level, it succeeds admirably. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to start learning about folklore studies, or who simply wants to have a greater understanding of what folklore truly is.

[Bookshire Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

What it says on the tin. A very accessible (sometimes a bit too much) introduction to folklore with a wealth of resources should you decide to explore a certain topic in more depth.
It mostly navigates the narrow line between entertaining and obnoxious really well, with humour never directed at the readers.

I ended up with many notes not only of resources but ideas and thoughts as well.

Pet peeves:
- The author labelling as “nerding out” whenever the topic is explored even a little bit in depth (but still accessible, mind you) or apologising whenever a chapter is too long (like, six pages). Is this perhaps an American thing (I met this oversimplification only in US non-fictions and textbooks, so…)?
- The book is based on the author’s blog posts and it would benefit from one more round of editing to avoid repetition and things irrelevant for the book form because that was kinda distracting.

[Molly Likovich · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the honor a few years ago to interview Jeana for a documentary I was making about the history of Little Red Riding Hood. Her knowledge on fairytales & folklore was awe-inspiring & this book only expanded on what I had already learned from her. Like an entire college education in folklore studies packed into a neat little book. Perfect for all fairytale fans or anyone just wanting to learn something new. Jeana takes topics other academics have made dull and explains them in fresh and funny ways that will stick with you long after you finish turning the pages.

[Emilie Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most fun I have ever had reading a textbook. I admit I find folklore fascinating, but this introduction makes it even more interesting. The author's style is very readable, almost conversational. The book includes a ton of examples, stories, and personal anecdotes. There are also a lot of suggestions for further reading. And it covers so many areas of folklore, things I never even thought of, from fairy tales to urban legends to counting rhymes and who wears pink or blue. Lots of short chapters make it easy to keep topics straight in your head, and kept tempting me into reading "just one more" far too late at night. I did know quite a bit about folklore before I read the book, but it is truly accessible for someone who knows nothing at all. If you want to learn lot about the subject but can't afford a college class, this book would be a great place to start.

[heptagrammaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exceedingly readable, and very passionate; Folklore 101 reads like the jazzed up lecture notes of the excitable associate professor who will sit on the desk in a class for twenty and call you by your first name. (This is a compliment.)

Importantly, Jeana Jorgensen emphasizes the ubiquity and closeness of folklore to everyone - and encourages the reader to go out with their tools and be a witness and observer, a carrier, a amateur (etymologically, "a lover") folklorist to the communities their inhabit. This is a unique and sublime aspect to much of the social sciences, and I wish more introductory texts emphasized these active aspects.

The text is, however, slightly repetitive - as an inevitable consequence of keeping the chapters as self-sufficient references rather than any literary/didactic fault. And though J. Jorgensen's approach to bibliography has much reason to it, it continuously strikes deep subconscious worry and confusion in my academically traumatized mind.

[Kelly Savage · Rating 2 out of 5]

I almost didn't rate this because I'm not a folklore scholar, I don't know what I'm talking about. But then Jorgensen's end notes say she wrote this "so that everyone who wanted to take a folklore class but didn't get a chance in college would be able to take a quick dive into the field of academic folklore studies," so I guess I'm exactly the target audience.

This was an absolute drag to read. I understand wanting to make academia accessible, but this is very "hello, fellow kids!" You can tell this book was compiled from Jorgensen's blog posts (at one point she forgot to change "this post" to "this chapter") because the amount of repetition and re-explaining of concepts from one chapter to another added thousands of words. The chapters are only 2-6 pages long and each focus on one specific concept, so the fact that things were explained all over again rather than just saying "see chapter 2" makes me suspect that only the bare minimum amount of editing was done to compile said blog posts.

I have no doubt whatsoever that Jorgensen is vastly knowledgeable in and passionate about her field. I get the impression I'd love to meet her at a cocktail party and let her talk my ear off about folklore, and I absolutely don't doubt that she's a spectacular professor. It's just this specific book and its specific compilation I take issue with. I don't really feel like I learned much of anything (and I'm starting from 0 on folklore academia) and the notes I did take are almost exclusively from quotes pulled from other sources.

So, I don't know, I can see how this book could be a helpful jumping off point for a college course where you have a professor going deeper into each topic and assigning further reading, etc., but if you're like me and looking to learn about folklore on your own, you could probably skip this one.

[Brandon · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Accessible” is one thing. So badly written that it’s actually inaccessible is another—and, unfortunately, that other thing is what this book is. I really sympathize with the goal of adopting such an informal style, but one can avoid High Academic Speak without writing the entire book like an early 2000s blog post. I wish I were exaggerating. Never, and I mean never, have I encountered an author who loves exclamation marks so much (and dashes, of which there are plenty, presumably because em dashes are in sufficiently folksy). On the first few pages alone, we find the following uses of exclamation marks: “Welcome to Folklore 101!,” Hey, that’s folklore!,” “Foodways!,” “Oh boy, things might get tense!,” and “You’ve definitely come to the right place!” (I haven’t.)

This isn’t even comprehensive, and comma issues, truly bizarre choices in spacing, and other syntactical oddities abound. Sentences are regularly set off by “I mean,…” and “Like,…,” leading me to believe maybe this book was originally a blog. I wish I could say these were merely funny editorial oversights, but (1) I don’t believe an editor was involved at all and (2) I finally just stopped reading. I found the style, errors, and tone distracting and irritating, the “How do you do, fellow kids?” of books. That’s disappointing, because I was really looking forward to learning more about the field, but it seems I’ll just have to skim relevant ideas and definitions, and I know even that is going to be a slog here.

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. The author spends most of her time trying extremely hard to sound hip and easygoing and doing incredible verbal acrobatics (utilizing tons of parentheticals) around apologizing for anything in the history of her field that could possibly be construed as ethnocentric. The combination of these two factors means she never quite gets to the point and I’m just left feeling confused over what I just read. Here’s a few prime examples just for fun:

“A century ago, it was a common rite of passage for folklorists and anthropologists to try to go abroad and study “exotic” and “foreign” people for their graduate fieldwork (yes, gag, that sort of colonialist mindset has been heavily interrogated since then).”

“So while folklorists use genre specifically within our discipline to refer to how expressive culture takes traditionally-recognized shapes, and tends to get funneled into those shapes since they’re what people already know and respond to, we don’t have sole claim to the word.”

“If you flip through old issues of the Journal of American Folklore, the academic journal of the American Folklore Society (founded in 1888) you'd think that the "folk" are primarily primitives, peasants, and non-whites. It feels kinda creepy, racist, and classist to see article after article focusing on the folklore of Native Americans, African Americans - though not using that term if that gives you any idea - and various island peoples. This fit in with general trends in the academy as well as cultural anthropology specifically from the early 20th century, where the culture of Those People Over There was seen as more suited for study than the Things We Civilized People Do. Still sorta gross, but yay context? Over time, the views shifted. Maaaaaybe we city-dwellers have folklore too (a trend that started, I believe, with the study of urban children's folklore and expanded from there, since doncha know kids are basically savages).”

Imagine reading an entire boom written like this? Gag.

[M.J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know the author, but I know her as a dance instructor so I don’t have much of a background in folklore studies. I did have one intro class in college, but I learned more from her book a quarter of a way in than I did from a whole semester of that class.

So, as someone with little knowledge on the subject, I feel I now have a better grasp on what the study of folklore is about and how it is broken down. It seems she has given many resources to continue any avenues one might find interesting.

This might even be a good book for someone trying to decide on what majors to take in higher education. It gives a good view of what’s out there in folklore studies. That way one doesn’t have to stumble about trying to piece it all together for themselves.

It’s written in a very relatable way so one doesn’t have to worry about it being dry and long. It’s written so you’ll enjoy you’re journey as you learn.

[Stephanie Farnsworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is very much an introductory book, and so not for scholars further down the road with folklore. It is an interesting summary of folklore - with an incredible amount of chapters that really capture the essential basics of the field (including the practicalities of field work).
Loses a star only because it is branded and marketed as an accessible introduction - in terms of language it absolutely is, there isn't much jargon at all, but accessibility is more than that and trying to locate large print, braille or audio based versions of this book proved impossible. Academia is still incredibly closed off to disabled people (and the contents of this book does acknowledge disability, to its credit) but accessibility is not just about jargon, but a myriad of different issues. These can't always be achieved because publishers are still very slow to support disabled scholars, but the text's marketing is one of misdirection.

[Katrina Reinert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Jeana Jorgensen is a delight to read because she's snarky, slightly irreverent, and well versed in her knowledge of folklore. Not only does she have years of accumulated knowledge from studying and teaching but in this book she pulls in books and papers from other highly respected folklorists to add additional value to reading this book. In her last chapter she states, "I wrote this book so that everyone who wanted to take a folklore class but didn't get a chance to in college would be able to take a quick dive into the field of academic folklore studies." Folklore 101 truly accomplishes this and whets the appetite for further study, and she's gracious enough to point you in the right direction. And even if you don't have an intention to further your folklore study, this books also invites the reader to explore their own folk groups and how they fit into those groups as active and passive bearers of their own folklore.

[Aviva Dassen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction to the basics of folklore! I had some interest in learning more about the field, and this was indeed very accessible. Pick and choose what you like, and continue learning with the references at the back of each chapter. It is written fairly conversationally, which didn't always read the way I had wanted to read, but the information provided is solid and with the right critical lens (in my opinion). Recommend this if you just want to get to know a bit more about the field of folklore!

[Kat Lebo · Rating 5 out of 5]

𝑭𝒐𝒍𝒌 𝑳𝒐𝒓𝒆 101: An Accessible Introduction to Folklore Studies
by Jeana Jorgensen

This was an interesting read that will have you rethinking all you thought you already knew about folk lore. Written in easy to understand terms and divided into easily digestible segments, this book is a good one to read and reread as your time allows.

[Connor Coyne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny, clever, enlightening, and very efficiently organized, if you want to expand your understanding of what folklore is, how it comes about, who it is for, and why it is important, this is a great opportunity to learn!

[Stuart Greenfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and well written

A very good introductory book. Will definitely be useful as a springboard for additional studies into a wide variety of genres and specific areas of folklore studies.

[Rescribo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a lot about folklore - particularly that it covers a lot more than I originally thought! The book was quite accessible.

[Hayden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for ENG 440: Folkloristics

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

For transparency, I'm good friends with Dr. Jorgensen, and we've been academic colleagues even longer. When she told me that she was going to publish this book, I was absolutely thrilled. And, as expected, it's brilliant.
I'm not a trained folklorist. I am a Communication scholar who periodically dabbles in fairy tales [noun, no hyphen]. When I've used fairy-tale lit [adjective, hyphen] in my classes, I've often reached out to Dr. Jorgensen for guidance about how to construct the lecture materials according to her discipline's standards. While I'm happy to make those calls, this book effectively eliminates the need to do so. When the title says "An Accessible Introduction," it really means it. Everything is written with absolute clarity. There are lots of examples--scholarly, textual, and real world--to shore up definitions and descriptions. She relies on other folklorists to situate herself in the discipline, and to also help show the scope of the literature available. Her writing is witty and lovely to read.
Frankly, I think this is a text that every media studies scholar should acquire as a general reference. Fairy tales and folklore come up so frequently in my classes, often through the vehicle of movie or tv show adaptations. It's so important that I can talk about them with correct terminology and situate them in larger traditions of society, culture, and orality. And, to never ever say, "well, in the original version." (Cross my heart, never again!)