Saturday, July 18, 2009

Folklore and the Style Invitational

In honor of the Smithsonian's Folklife Festival, the Washington Post ran a Style Invitational asking for possible exhibits that might be part of the Folklife Festival. I enjoyed reading these simply because it highlights something I'm always trying to teach students in my intro to Folklore class: what is and is not folklore.

As you can see from this list, a number of these simply play on the idea of folklore as any old or outdated custom (like licking stamps), while others are truly humorous imaginings of things that could tickle a folklorist's fancy.

I'm actually thinking about using this as part of an exam in my intro class this fall.

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