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This article continues a call for the development of a critical folklore studies as a mode of activist research to redress human suffering and domination. It examines folk criticism as a vibrant, everyday practice and encourages folklorists to embrace critical perspectives as a continuation of this essential human activity. It draws upon Kenneth Burke, Michael Walzer, Thomas McLaughlin, and Antonio Gramsci to illustrate the intimate relationship between folk and professional criticism. Finally, it offers four forms of critical rhetoric intended to complement traditional folklore scholarship and to pursue social change: formal criticism and critique, performance ethnographies, unmaskings, and genealogies.
We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old.
-Ralph Chaplin
lamenting the creeping demise of programs and departments of folklore in the early twenty-first century, Alan Dundes (2005) offered a resolute and resounding diagnosis. The principal reason for the decline, he argued, was lack of innovation in grand theory by contemporary folklorists; others include the failure of professional folklorists to counter works by amateurs, the loss of previous disciplinary knowledge, and intimidation by informants that compromises research. Dundes's emphasis on grand theory led him to treat several contemporary movements in folklore studies uncharitably. He dismissed both feminist theory and performance theory, for example, suggesting they are "simply pretentious ways of saying that we should study folklore as performed, and we should be more sensitive to the depiction of women in folkloristic texts and contexts" (2005:389); public folklore is likewise relegated to a single passing statement (2005:387). The aim of this essay is to offer an alternative diagnosis.
R ecently, I (2009) presented a case for the development of a critical folklore studies, drawing upon Roger Abrahams, Kenneth Burke, Antonio Gramsci, Ernesto Laclau, and several contemporary rhetorical theorists and critics. "Critical" in this sense concerns the active pursuit of emancipation from oppression, the recognition and address of domination and privilege, and the promotion of democratic social change, akin to the intercessory work of, for example, critical cultural studies, critical ethnography, and critical pedagogy. In advocating a closer relation between folklore studies and rhetorical studies to assist this project, I raised the possibility that the production of criticism and critique would be an essential component for a robust critical folklore studies....