Folk and popular culture I
EIS708 Folk and popular culture I
Professor: Cleo GOUGOULIS | Course outline [pdf file]
The course focuses on the critical exploration of concepts such as folk/popular, people, nation, culture, tradition, modernity and cultural heritage in the context of the historical development of scholarly interest in rural and urban everyday culture in Greece and other European countries from the 19th century to the present. In this context a review is provided on the foundation of folklore as an academic discipline and on the historical development of its theoretical and methodological orientations and range of research topics. Furthermore the relationship between folklore and other disciplines especially sociology, history, social anthropology and cultural studies is analyzed.
Central theoretical and methodological issues are discussed and examples of ethnographic approaches to several topics are presented such as traditional and contemporary social and economic structures (kinship, family, community, social networks etc) gender, age and ethnic identities and relations, the organization of time and space, production and consumption, and traditional forms of recreation in Greece and other countries.
The course aims to familiarize students with central concepts of folk and popular culture and the historical context of their study. A further aim of the course is the critical approach of theoretical and methodological tools used across different disciplines for the study of its topics.
After the completion of the course students are expected:
- To have mastered key concepts in Folk and Popular Culture
- To be able to analyze topics in Folk and Popular Culture
- To be able to conduct individual research or collaborate with other students on a small research project.
Companions