Course Goals: 

1)  Learn the central issues of folklore and cultural studies, particularly those related to ritual, material culture and oral lore.

2)  Understand what folklorists do and how their work is relevant to understanding of culture.


3)  Explain and apply the major theories of folklore in relation to rituals, material culture and oral lore.


4)  Improve cross-cultural communication.


5)  Recognize how cultures establish categories and structures relevant to their understanding of the world.


6)  Determine how cultural categories and structures are shared or differ between cultures.


7)  Improve analytical skills through written analyses of cultural data.


8)  Perform ethical and accurate collection of folklore data.

Texts:
1)  Aleksander Afanas'ev, Russian Fairy Tales

2)  James Bailey, Russian Epics

3)  Roberta Reeder, Russian Folk Lyrics

4)  Lecture Preps (on reserve and available on my web site)

5)  selected readings from Sokolov and Haney, on reserve (marked with * in the daily schedule).

OPTIONAL: Linda Ivanits, Russian Folk Belief

Reserve list:
All of the books listed under Texts above.

Films: 
You will also have to see The Deer Hunter for paper 1 (on reserve in the Foreign Language Multimedia Center in CB 334; bring a photo i.d. with you when you want to watch the film). It is also widely available at local video rental stores.

Course Requirements:
   Class Participation/Homework      25%  
   Papers                                           50%                     
   Final Project                                 25%

Grading Scale:    
    90-100%    A   
    80-89%        B
    70-79%        C
    60-69%        D                                          
    59% or below     E

E-mail: You must have an e-mail account and access to the web. Some Thursdays you will have an assignment after class on the e-groups site. Your responses are due on the site before 10:30 a.m. the following Tuesday. Therefore, by next class period, please make sure that your e-mail account is activated and that you have the correct address. If you need to open an account, go to 110 McVey Hall. You can also get an account on-line at http://w3srv.cc.uky.edu:8000/uams/ default.htm The easiest way to reach me is often via e-mail. If you have questions, you can usually get an answer via e mail within a few hours, rather than waiting until the next day or for office hours.    

Reading Assignments:  You are responsible for the assignments given below in the daily syllabus.  You should read the material BEFORE the class in which we will cover it, so that you will be prepared to discuss it. Not being prepared will adversely affect your class participation grade, which will be assessed daily through graded in-class writing and discussion assignments. The material in the books and the lecture preps is only the basis for class discussion. Therefore, you are also responsible for the material covered in class, which may not be in the readings or the lecture preps.

Papers: The  papers are 50% of your grade. They form the major focus of the course. I will try to post the assignments on my web site as soon as we have covered the relevant material. Papers are due IN CLASS no later than 12:30. Late papers will not be accepted. If you e-mail them to me, I must receive the file no later 12:30.

If you are having trouble with an assignment or with a concept, please let me know, either during class or office hours. Questions are always welcome. You may work together on the assignments, but once you begin writing the answer, no consultation with others is permitted. By university policy, the minimum penalty for handing in an assignment any part of which is copied or from which another student is allowed to copy is an E for the course.

Attendance:  Attendance is mandatory.  More than two absences will lower your grade by one full grade.

Class Participation:  The success of this class is dependent on your participation. In order to avoid lecturing, I have assigned the readings and lecture preps. That way, you will have basic information before you arrive, so that you can contribute to our group discussions. In addition, we will have a class listserv to which you will post responses to periodic homework questions. Listserv responses should meet the standards for a university, that is accurate spelling, proper grammar as well as thorough and thoughtful consideration of the topic. The advantages of a listserv: 1) everyone learns from each other; 2)  you can respond directly to other ideas; 3) you will be more prepared to participate in class, since you will have access to varied views. The remaining 50% of class participation will be based on daily/weekly in-class exercises.

Final Project: You will receive a separate sheet detailing the assignment. The project is due on the date of the final exam, that is on Thursday, December 14, 2006 by 1:00 p.m. in my office.

Expectations for the professor: This class requires a great deal of reading, writing and class participation. I have high standards for my classes and for the students in them. However, I have similar high standards for myself.
    -I will return your papers, graded and with comments, within a week. In order for you to have the weekend to work on the papers, they are generally due on Tuesdays. As a result, I cannot have them read the same week, since I also need a weekend to grade.
    -I will be at my office hours. If I have to cancel office hours, I will email changes and will offer alternate times to ensure that I am in my office at least 3 hours a week.
    -I will make appointments with you if you cannot meet with me during office hours and will always try to answer questions in class and outside of it.
    -I will NOT read the drafts of your papers, but I encourage you to meet with me to discuss your ideas. However, I will arrange at least one writing workshop during the semester (before the first paper is due).
    -I will be flexible regarding deadlines (within reason), but a majority of the class must agree for a deadline to be changed. Once a deadline is set, you should expect all work to be due by class time (or in the case of online assignments, by 10:30 a.m.). I will not accept any work that is late, even by five minutes.
    -I will give you opportunities for extra credit to increase your paper grade. These opportunities will be posted on my web site under extra credit, so that you should check it weekly to see what is there. Each extra credit assignment is worth a maximum of 5 points.

* INDICATES THAT THE READING IS ON RESERVE.

Note: Every week you will have an assignment to read some fairy tales. This structure is designed to avoid having to read lots of tales in a short time later on in the semester. We will not discuss those tales in detail until late October, but if you have a question OR if you think that something you read in the tales relates to the discussion, please do not hesitate to bring it up in class. The page numbers listed below refer to tales which BEGIN on the pages.


R 8/24        Introduction to Folklore/Begin discussing material culture

T 8/29        Continue discussing material culture (houses, clothing, food, place spirits)
        BEFORE CLASS READ: Lecture Prep 1; OPTIONAL: Ivanits, pp. 3-18, 51-82

R 8/31        Finish discussing material culture
        
T 9/5        Begin discussion of myth and epic
        BEFORE CLASS READ: Bailey, Introduction and pp. 3-21, 81-105; Lecture Prep 2
        
R 9/7        Continue discussion of myth and epic
        BEFORE CLASS READ: Bailey, pp. 25-48, 307-328

T 9/12        Finish discussion of myth and epic
        BEFORE CLASS READ: Bailey, pp. 130-143, 147-176, 188-200, 264-278

R 9/14        Discuss lament, lyric songs, historical songs, ballads
BEFORE CLASS READ: *Sokolov (on reserve), pp. 224-240; Reeder, pp. 1-35; Bailey, pp. 357-364, 389-396
        
T 9/19        Discuss lament, lyric songs, historical songs, ballads
        BEFORE CLASS READ: Reeder, pp. 105-113, 130-146, 151-166

R 9/21        Finish discussion of lament, lyric songs, historical songs, ballads
BEFORE CLASS READ: Reeder, pp. 49-56, 168-179

T 9/26        Begin discussion of tales
BEFORE CLASS READ: Afanas’ev  pp. 15, 17, 86, 191, 249, 273, 275, 288, 371, 437, 498, 499; Lecture Prep 3
        
R 9/28        Continue discussion of tales
BEFORE CLASS READ: Afanas’ev  pp. 49, 119, 146, 194, 200, 234, 294, 363, 375, 393, 427, 439, 485, 504, 533,  580, 600, 612; READ: Lecture Prep 4

T 10/3        Continue discussion of tales
        
R 10/5        Continue discussion of tales
        **Paper 1 due

T 10/10    Continue discussion of tales
BEFORE CLASS READ: Afanas’ev  pp. 29, 39, 56, 59, 62, 117, 118, 131, 151, 161, 163, 208, 255, 280, 325, 338, 590

R 10/12    Finish discussion of tales
BEFORE CLASS READ: Afanas’ev  pp. 20, 134, 156, 177, 333, 340, 399, 415, 419, 423, 425, 550, 567, 576,  593

T 10/17    Begin discussion of rituals in 19th century Russia
BEFORE CLASS READ: Lecture Prep 5; Reeder, pp. 85-104; OPTIONAL: Ivanits, pp. 19-37, 83-124
        
R 10/19    Continue discussion of rituals in 19th century Russia

T 10/24    Continue discussion of rituals in 19th century Russia
        
R 10/26    Continue discussion of rituals in 19th century Russia
        
T 10/31    Continue discussion of rituals in 19th century Russia
        BEFORE CLASS READ: Lecture Prep 6; Reeder, pp. 121-129

R 11/2        Continue discussion of rituals in 19th century Russia
**Paper 2 due

T 11/7        Finish discussion of rituals in 19th/20th century Russia    
        
R 11/9     Case study of contemporary folklore: childlore
        BEFORE CLASS READ: Lecture Prep 7
        
T 11/14    Case study of contemporary folklore: jokes

R 11/16    NO CLASS (I will be out of town for a conference)
        
T 11/21    NO CLASS (I will be out of town for Thanksgiving break)

R 11/23    NO CLASS-THANKSGIVING BREAK

T 11/28    Case study of traditional and contemporary folklore: legends
BEFORE CLASS READ: *(from Haney’s Russian Legends, on reserve) 3, 7, 9, 13, 20, 43, 44, 71, 74, 97, 117, 134; OPTIONAL: Ivanits, pp. 127-205

R 11/30    Continuation of legends
        
T 12/5        Case study of contemporary and traditional lore: proverbs, charms, curses, omens, divinations,             conversions
        BEFORE CLASS READ: Lecture Prep 8

R 12/7        Wrap up discussion
        
Final Project Due: Thursday, December 14  by  1 p.m. in my office