Publication Date

2009

Journal or Book Title

Journal of American Folklore

Abstract

This article argues for the development of a critical folklore studies through an interweaving of folklore and rhetorical theory. Following paths set by Roger Abrahams, Kenneth Burke, and Antonio Gramsci decades ago, and drawing upon more recent contributions by Ernesto Laclau and rhetorical critics, it considers folklore as a constitutive rhetoric, the act of which establishes a "folk"--and their adversaries-as a political category. Identifying three articulations of critical folklore studies, it calls upon folklorists to intervene against (rather than strictly analyze) oppressive power formations through the production of overt criticism and related counterhegemonic practices

Comments

Published as Journal of American Folklore 122(484):172–196 Copyright © 2009 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois]. DOI: 10.1353/jaf.0.0086

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1353/jaf.0.0086

Pages

172-196

Volume

122

Issue

484

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