Course Syllabi
English 870: Seminar in Folklore
Culture, Waste, and Recylcing
308E
Denney 262
MW 3:30-5:18
This course explores the notion of the residual: what is left over, useless, unclassifiable. The residual is central to folklore studies, a discipline initially imagined as the study of cultural leftovers, converted in practice to the recuperation and classification of these materials as national (or natural) resources, and perhaps best thought of as the sudy of cultural recycling. We’ll begin with the insights of symbolic anthropology, to show how things, people, and ideas may fall out of or re-enter systems of value and meaning. Inspired by Agnès Varda's film The Gleaners and I (2000), we will work towards a history of waste and re-use. We will examine the customary management of communal resources, the creation of waste (and its converse, deprivation) with the codifications of modernity, and the various modes of recycling and reuse that develop in reaction. We’ll end by considering the residual status of folklore itself in cultural theory, and the various strategies of recuperation that have been attempted for it.
Required Readings
The following books have been ordered at SBX only:Cerny, Charlene, and Suzanne Seriff, eds. 1996. Recycled, Re-Seen: Folk Art From the Global Scrap-Heap. New York/Santa Fe: Harry N. Abrams/Museum of International Folk Art.
Hyde, Lewis. 1983 (1979). The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property. New York: Random House.
All other readings will be in a packet on reserve at the Main Library unless they are marked on the syllabus as being available electronically.
Course Requirements
- General participation and presentations on the readings. Each student will be asked to present one reading per week (approximately) to the rest of the class, providing a summary of the main argument and an evaluation of the reading’s usefulness for our purposes. (Note: readings to be presented by individuals are given an asterisk on the syllabus.) 40%.
- A research paper (ca. 10 pages, probably more if much exposition or presentation of text is required) on historical, textual, or field research. The topic is open but the paper should show the depth of your engagement with the themes and readings of the course. 60%
Absences. The success of a small class depends on the regular attendance of all participants. I expect you to be in class except in cases of meaningful illness or personal emergency. Please consult me if you are having difficulties.
Plagiarism. Plagiarism is the representation of another's works or ideas as one's own: it includes the unacknowledged word for word use and/or paraphrasing of another person's work, and/or the inappropriate unacknowledged use of another person's ideas. All cases of suspected plagiarism, in accordance with university rules, will be reported to the Committee on Academic Misconduct.
Disability resources. The Office for Disability Services, located in 150 Pomerene Hall, offers services for students with documented disabilities. Contact the ODS at 2-3307. If you require accomodation to do the work of the course, please let me know immediately.
SCHEDULE
Unit one. Approaching the residual
9/21 |
Introduction |
9/26 |
Symbolic approaches: classification and residues *Douglas, Mary 1979 (1966). "The Abominations of Leviticus." In Reader in Comparative Religion, 149-152. W. Lessa and E. Vogt, eds. New York: Harper and Row. *Leach, Edmund 1979 (1964). "Anthropological Aspects of Language: Animal Categories and Verbal Abuse." In Reader in Comparative Religion, 153-166. W. Lessa and E. Vogt, eds. New York: Harper and Row. *Thompson, Michael 1979. Rubbish Theory: The Creation and Destruction of Value, ch. 1 (1-12). Oxford: Oxford University Press. |
9/28 |
Film: “The Gleaners and I” (Les glaneurs et la glaneuse), dir. Agnès Varda (2000). |
10/3 |
Historical and practice approaches *Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1962. “The Science of the Concrete.” The Savage Mind, 1-33. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. *Kelley, Donald R. 1990. " ‘Second Nature’: The Idea of Custom in European Law, Society, and Culture.” The Transmission of Culture in Early Modern Europe, 131-172. Anthony Grafton and Ann Blair, eds. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. |
Unit two. Scarcity and abundance
10/5 |
Buried treasure, limited good and reciprocity Grimm, Jakob and Wilhelm. 1987 (1857). “Godfather Death.” The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, 160-163. Jack Zipes, trans. New York: Bantam. *Foster, George W. 1964. “Treasure Tales and the Image of the Static Economy in a Mexican Peasant Community.” Journal of American Folklore 77: 39-44. Online. *Briggs, Charles. 1985. “Treasure Tales and Pedagogical Discourse in Mexicano New Mexico.” Journal of American Folklore 86: 287-314. Online. Agonito, Rosemary. 1967. “The Snake.” From “Il Paisano: Italian Immigrant Folktakes of Central New York.” New York Folklore Quarterly, 54-55. |
10/10 |
Hunger and the land of Cockayne Grimm, Jakob and Wilhelm. 1987 (1857). “Hansel and Gretel” and “Clever Gretel.” The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, 58-64, 286-288. Jack Zipes, trans. New York: Bantam. *Del Giudice, Luisa. 2001. “Mountains of Cheese and Rivers of Wine: Paesi di Cuccagna and Other Gastronomic Utopias.” Imagined States: Nationalism, Utopia, and Longing in Oral Cultures, 11-63. Luisa Del Giudice and Gerald Porter, eds. Logan: Utah State University Press. Pellegrini, Angelo. 1984 (1948). “The Discovery of Abundance.” From The Unprejudiced Palate, 18-36. San Francisco: North Point Press. Hill, Joe. 1911. “Pie in the Sky.” McClintock, Harry. 1921. “The Big Rock Candy Mountain. |
Unit three. Tradition and the outsider
10/12 |
Foreigners and immigrants The Book of Ruth |
10/17 |
Marginals, transients, category problems *Green, Anthony E. 1980. "Popular Drama and the Mummers' Play." In Performance and Politics in Popular Drama, 139-166. David Bradby et al., eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *Hartigan, John Jr. 1997. “Name Calling: Objectifying ‘Poor Whites’ and ‘White Trash’ in Detroit.” White Trash: Race and Class in America, 41-56. Matt Wray and Annalee Newitz, eds. New York and London: Routledge. * Penley, Constance. “Crackers and Whackers: The White Trashing of Porn.” White Trash: Race and Class in America, 89-112. Matt Wray and Annalee Newitz, eds. New York and London: Routledge. |
10/19 |
No class: American Folklore Society Annual Meeting |
10/24 |
Moral geographies *Stallybrass, Peter, and Allon White. 1986. The Politics and Poetics of Transgression (selections). London: Methuen. *Modan, Gabriella. 2002. “’Public Toilets for a Diverse Neighborhood’: Spatial Purification Practices in Community Development Discourse.” *Sibley, David. 1999. “Creating Geographies of Difference.” In Human Geography Today, 115-128. Edited by Doreen Massey, John Allen, and Philip Sarre, Malden MA: Polity Press, |
Unit four. Commons and communities
10/26 |
The commons *Scott, James. 1998. “Nature and Space.” Seeing Like a State, 11-51. New Haven: Yale University Press. *Williams, Raymond. 1973. “Enclosures, Commons, and Communities.” The Country and the City, 96-107. New York: Oxford. *McKay, Bonnie J. and James M. Acheson. 1987. “The Human Ecology of the Commons.” The Question of the Commons, 1-34. McKay and Acheson, eds. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. Also recommended: Gudeman, Steven. 2001. The Anthropology of Economy, esp. chs. 1-3. Oxford: Blackwell. |
10/31 |
Enclosures, legitimacy, and customary protest *Sahlins, Peter. 1993. “Deep Play in the Forest: The "War of the Demoiselles" in the Ariège, 1829-1831.” Culture and identity in early modern Europe (1500-1800),159-177. Barbara B. Diefendorf and Carla Hesse, eds. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. *a Noyes, Dorothy. 1995. "Façade Performances: Public Face, Private Mask.” Southern Folklore 52: 91-95. *b Noyes, Dorothy. 1995. "Façade Performances in Catalonia: Display, Respect, Reclamation, Refusal." Southern Folklore 52: 97-120. |
11/2 |
The commons in ruins: Appalachia *Hufford, Mary. 1999. “Weathering the Storm: Cultural Survival in an Appalachian Valley.” An Appalachian Tragedy: Air Pollution and Tree Death in the Eastern Forests of North America, 147-159. Harvard Ayers, *Stewart, Kathleen. 1996. “Mimetic Excess in an Occupied Place.” A Space on the Side of the Road: Cultural Poetics and Politics in an “Other” America, 41-66. Princeton: Princeton University Press. |
Part Five. Property, capitalism and waste
11/7 |
Gift and exchange Hyde, Lewis. 1983 (1979). The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property (selections). New York: Random House. Mauss, Marcel. 1967 (1925).The Gift. Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies. Tr. Ian Cunnison. New York: Norton. Graeber, David. 2001. Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of Our Own Dreams. New York: Palgrave. |
11/8 |
Mini-symposium on Kenyan popular culture, 3:30-6:00: not required but recommended. Location TBA. |
11/9 |
James Scott lecture at the Mershon Center, 1501 Neil Ave. (8th and Neil). 3:30 but get there early for a seat. |
11/ 14 |
Thrift *Franklin, Benjamin 1961. “The Way to Wealth.” The Autobiography and Other Writings, 188-197. New York: Signet. *Weber, Max 1976 (1920-21). “Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism.” The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, 155-183. Trans. Talcott Parsons. New York: Scribners. |
11/16 |
Excess and display *Veblen, Thorstein. 1994 (1899). “Conspicuous Consumption.” The Theory of the Leisure Class, 68-101. New York: Penguin. *Bataille, Georges. “The Notion of Expenditure.” Visions of Excess, 116-129. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. |
11/21 |
Trash *Strasser, Susan. 1999. Waste and Want : A Social History of Trash. New York: Metropolitan. *Royte, Elizabeth. 2005. Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash. New York: Little, Brown. *Rathje, William L. and Cullen Murphy. 2001. Rubbish!: The Archaeology of Garbage. Tucson: University of Arizona Press *Windmüller, Sonja. 2004. Die Kehrseite der Dinge. Müll, Abfall, Wegwerfen als kulturwissenschaftliches Problem. Münster: Lit Verlag. |
11/23 |
Scavenging, conspicuous recycling, and the aesthetics of trash. * Cerny, Charlene, and Suzanne Seriff, eds. 1996. Recycled, Re-Seen: Folk Art From the Global Scrap-Heap (selections). New York/Santa Fe: Harry N. Abrams/Museum of International Folk Art. |
Part Six. Leftover culture
11/28 |
Cultures, residual and emergent Schmitt, Jean-Claude 1983.“On Superstition.” The Holy Greyhound, 14-24. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tylor, E. B. 1970 (1871). “The Science of Culture.” The Origins of Culture, 1-25. Gloucester MA: Peter Smith. Williams, Raymond 1977. “Dominant, Residual, and Emergent.” Marxism and Literature, 121-127. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Gramsci, Antonio. 1999 (1950). “Observations on Folklore.” International Folkloristics. Alan Dundes, ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. |
11/30 |
The futures of the folk Stewart, Kathleen. 1988. “Nostalgia: A Polemic.” Cultural Anthropology. 3:227-241. |
