v
“Any
category of artistic, musical or literary composition characterized by a
particular style, form, content or context.”
v
A
particular category of lore. Examples
within a certain genre share characteristics with other examples in that genre.
v
Used
by scholars in order to study and classify materials.
4
branches of folkloristics: ORAL, GESTURAL, CUSTOMARY, MATERIAL
ORAL
NARRATIVES
(main genres)
EPICS:
Epics
are long narratives involving culture heroes, sung by bards in poetic verse;
often used to inform or direct the culture and for entertainment.
FOLKTALES:
Narratives that are not believed to be true, completely fictional
stories, often in timeless, placeless settings (once upon a time) with
one-dimensional characters (good or bad) used to entertain and inspire,
enlighten.
Sub-Genres of Folktales
Complex
(multiple episodes)
Simple (single episode)
Märchen (=wonder, fairy tale)
Jocular Tale
(joke, tall tale)
Religious
Formula Tale (proverb, catch tale)
Novella
Fable
LEGENDS:
Prose narratives set in the present or recent past, supposedly true
(believed), set in the contemporary or remembered real world with realistic
characters, can be sacred or secular, used to scare, teach, inform, entertain.
Local and Urban varieties.
MYTHS:
Myths are usually considered to be narrative set in the distant past (or
origin) that are often directive of social norms or values. They are often
considered to be sacred and may explain how things came to be (often associated
with religion or rituals).
PERSONAL
EXPERIENCE NARRATIVES: First-person accounts about a personal
experience. Content is not
traditional; this is a unique story about an event that has occurred in the
narrator's life.
Some
CUSTOMARY, GESTURAL, & MATERIAL GENRES
FESTIVAL:
regularly recurring cultural performance, public and large scale, often
linked with annual cycle. Involve
community participation, and multiple purposes and expressive forms.
RITUAL:
category of symbolic behavior, regularly performed, occasionally
associated with but not necessarily dependent on religious myth.
Complex meanings (because of symbols).
FOLK
ART AND FOLK CRAFT:
material things that use traditional techniques, designs, and forms and
use locally available materials.
FOLK
ART: aesthetics more important
FOLK
CRAFT: function more important