Folklore not just about legends, it’s also about everyday life events
You may think of Red Rover, kick the can and telling ghost stories as things you did when you were a child. However, to a folklorist they are much more than that – they are subjects to be studied, and more importantly, celebrated and passed on.
“Everyone has experience in folklore,” said Stephanie Wilson, a junior technical writing major who is minoring in folklore. “You can apply things in folklore every day in your life. It’s all about what people do every day.”
Wilson, along with faculty adviser Lynne McNeill and several other students, has recently formed the USU Folk Society, the first student folklore organization on campus.
The concept of folklore as a field of study is fairly recent and often not understood, said McNeill, a lecturer in the English department. She said introductory folklore classes always begin the first several classes simply defining and understanding exactly what folklore is.
“Folklore is the informal, everyday traditions of a group of people,” McNeill said. “It is the things we learn from each other.”
The USU Folk Society hopes to clear up some of this confusion and make folklore accessible to many students, faculty and staff, McNeill said.
“We would like to broaden people’s horizons to know that folklore means a lot of things,” said Amanda Woolfton, a senior history major also minoring in folklore and a co-founder of the club. “It’s what people do.”
Folklore traditions can range from domestic activities like bread baking or various crafts to legends and stories like the local Logan stories about Old Ephraim or the nunnery in Logan Canyon.
Wilson said many academic fields struggle to apply their study to real life. The folklore field, on the other hand, has the opposite dilemma of taking all the traditions and cultural oddities that make up everyday life and fit them into a discipline of study.
McNeill said she was surprised that USU did not have a student folk society because the folk program is so strong here. The USU program is one of the best in the western United States, McNeill said, and it draws students from all around the country. The department often hosts major events, like the Legends Conference coming this summer, and hosts a large Western folk collection in the Merrill-Cazier Library.
Undergraduate students have played a large role in the development of the program, which currently can be studied as an emphasis within the English major or a separate minor. Wilson said undergraduate students are required to collect many folk objects such as old family pictures, children’s games and urban legends that add to the Fife Folklore Archives in the library.
The idea for the club began in McNeill’s Survey of Folk (English 2720) class as she expressed her surprise that a strong folklore program like USU’s did not already have a student folk society. Several students, including Wilson, agreed with her and took it upon themselves to form the society, McNeill said.
McNeill said many people who take folk classes enjoy them, but are disappointed when they discover that they can’t major in the field. They would like the society to “help people feel it’s OK to be interested in folklore as a discipline.”
“We hope we can let people know what folklore is so the program will grow,” Woolfton said.
However, perhaps most importantly, the folk society gives students and other participants the chance to actually participate the practice of folklore.
“The goal is not to be too academic about it and enjoy the stuff of folklore rather than just study it,” McNeill said.
Wilson said the society allows them to experience the processes of passing on folklore that they regularly talk about in the classroom.
“The interesting and wonderful thing is that it’s passed in a group informally,” Wilson said. “Without an informal setting to practice folklore, it can’t be perpetuated.”
However, both McNeill and Wilson stressed that anyone can feel welcome to discuss folklore.
“Everyone can relate to it,” McNeill said. “Everyone knows the stories they know and can tell them with some expertise.”
The Folk Society’s first activity will be on April 20 as part of the Day on the Quad. It will feature storytellers from the Native American Student Union and from the local community, and people can make “God’s Eyes,” a Native American craft somewhat similar to a dreamcatcher, Wilson said. They are meant as a way to remember that God is watching over someone, Wilson added.
The USU Folk Society is currently in the process of writing its constitution and applying to ASUSU to be an official USU club. They hope to have regular activities throughout next year at least once a month. Anyone interested in participating in the USU Folk Society can contact Stephanie Wilson at stephwilso@hotmail.com for more information.
-tliljegren@cc.usu.edu