Great FOLK/ETHNO classes with seats still available!

F101 Introduction to Folklore
11:15A-12:05P Tusday/Thursday + discussion section
Instructor: Brandon Barker
Location: Woodburn Hall 100
Course #: 18131

CASE A&H; GenEd A&H. Folklore is alive and inspires the choices we make every day: how we communicate, what foods we eat, what games we play, what stories we tell, how we interpret the world around us. Folklore reflects our values, our prejudices, our fears, and our desires. The practices, beliefs, and objects that constitute folklore are so intrinsic to our daily lives that they are often overlooked in other disciplines that study human culture, but every culture has folklore and we are all part of the folk. In this course we will consider the role folklore plays in the lives of people around the world.

F121 World Arts & Culture
11:15A-12:05P Monday/Wednesday + discussion section
Instructor: Pravina Shukla
Location: Woodburn Hall 101
Course #: 22173

Fulfills CASE S&H; GenEd S&H, WC. This course will explore traditional arts, looking at different mediums of artistic expression, and at a variety of cultural contexts around the world and within the United States. Each week we will travel to a different region of the world where artistic expression – as material culture -- enables people to present themselves as members of groups and as individuals. Throughout the semester, we will seek to understand the myriad ways in which the arts are fundamental to human existence, used as a vehicle for the expression of faith, culture, aesthetics, and community. Class topics will include festivals and celebrations, pottery, food, tattoos and body art, textile arts, and costumes.

 

F205 Folklore in Video and Film
1:00P-2:15PM Monday/Wednesday
Instructor: Michael Foster
Location: Ballantine Hall 141
Course #: 27158

Fulfills CASE A&H. This course explores how film and folklore inform each other. Since the advent of film technology, numerous documentaries have been produced to examine all sorts of folklife and practices—everything from festivals and rituals to foodways and graffiti. And because folklore is inseparable from everyday life, dramatic movies, popular cinema, and television productions inevitably draw on folklore for the construction of characters and storyline. Indeed, specifically folkloric themes and genres—including urban legends, myths, folktales, and supernatural beliefs—have long been favorites subjects of feature films. This course considers both ethnographic films depicting folkloric practices as well as popular movies and television shows inspired by folkloric topics or narrative forms. We will examine the way film not only portrays folklore but also functions as a medium for transmitting folk beliefs and worldviews, and even for engendering new folklore. Throughout the course, we will question boundaries between folklore and popular culture, and investigate how new media and the Internet change traditional understandings of expressive culture. Students will view films and other popular media with a critical eye, not only seeking connections to folklore but also analyzing these connections for their wider socio-cultural meanings. Specific topics and films will be selected from a range of time periods, genres and national contexts.

Although we will not watch a film every week, attendance at screenings is mandatory and students should make sure they are available during screening times.

F235 Personal Narratives: Folklore and Literature
1:00P-2:15P Tuesday/Thursday
Instructor: Kate Horigan
Location: 800 N Indiana Ave
Course #: 30310

CASE A&H; GenEd A&H. From Gilgamesh to Brer Rabbit, from Nathaniel Hawthorne to Leslie Marmon Silko, folk narrative and literary texts have a complex relationship. This course aims to explore the shifting connections between “folklore” (traditional cultural practices including verbal arts, customs, and material culture) and “literature.” We will examine storytelling in across the borders of the oral and the written. We will begin by considering a wide range of genres including epics, folktales, and legends, and we will identify and evaluate processes of cross-genre movement: borrowing, stealing, reinforcing, undermining, and so on. We will conclude with contemporary examples of personal experience narrative and related genres such as life history and autobiography, exploring for example how oral testimony is related to memoirs and literary hoaxes. Throughout the course, we will focus our attention on issues of genre, context, authority, and cultural values.

F252 Global Pop Music
1:00P-2:15P Tuesday/Thursday
Instructor: Daniel Reed
Location: Ballantine Hall 141
Course #: 30315

CASE A&H; GenEd A&H. Congolese rumba. Irish punk. Jewish hip hop. Indian disco. People around the world have created a rich and fascinating array of popular music styles. What do these musics sound like, and why? How might we analyze popular musics in order to better understand musicians’ motives, intentions, and creative processes? What roles do these musical styles play in movements for social change? In revolutions? As markers of generational, ethnic, racial, religious, gender, and other identities? How do meanings associated with popular musics change over time? What roles do economics, globalization, transnational trends, and the music industry (including the “world music” industry) play in shaping sound and culture? Structured thematically, this course will compare and contrast particular popular musics and explore what the study of these musics can reveal to us about the people who create and use them.

F256 The Supernatural and Folklore
2:30P-3:20P Monday/Wednesday + discussion section
Instructor: Kate Horigan
Location: Woodburn Hall 101
Course #: 27163

CASE A&H, GCC. Ghosts, vampires, werewolves and other supernatural beings are immensely popular and appear in contemporary novels, video games, films, and other media. Belief in the supernatural is explored in television shows that detail the exploits of “ghost hunters” or probe the possibility of extraterrestrial encounters. Statistics gathered by Gallop Poll indicate that an extremely large percentage of North Americans not only believe in the supernatural, but in fact, believe that they themselves have had a supernatural or paranormal experience. “Evidence” of the supernatural is, in this sense, all around us. What do people find so compelling about the supernatural? And why, as folklorists, should we concern ourselves with the study of supernatural tradition? This course examines the many forms of supernatural belief traditions that people express through traditional genres and through popular media. A key concept is the issue of belief: in this case, the conviction that experiences of the supernatural are genuine, and have important implications about life after death, the existence of spirits, magic, and related topics. Through specific case studies, we will explore the forms supernatural tradition and belief take in everyday life, and develop models for understanding how supernatural belief relates to other aspects of worldview and culture.

F315 South American Performance & Culture: Protest Music
7:00P-9:30P Wednesday
Instructor: Javier Leon
Location: 800 N Indiana Ave
Course #: 27103

Above course meets with F638.

CASE A&H, GCC. This performance-based course introduces students to a variety of folk and popular music traditions associated with social and protest movements the South American region. The course will cover rural and urban musics from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Uruguay and in the process learn about the important role that music and musicians have had in building community, provide social commentary, and challenge authoritarian rule. The course will be a combination of live performance workshop, classroom lectures, take-home reading and writing assignments, and an end of the semester group research project designed to about the rich history and social importance of protest music in South America. Emphasis will also be given to the development of aural skills, learning the repertoire by ear, and the use of local performance practice techniques. Note: Because of the performance component in this class, students are expected to have some basic musical performance skills. Interested students must contact Prof. León (jfleon@indiana.edu) and make an appointment to have their musical skill assessed before they are given permission to enroll in the class.

F354 From Juke Joint to Choir Loft
9:05A-9:55A Monday/Wednesday/Friday
Instructor: Mellonee Burnim
Location: Ballantine Hall 016
Course #: 27187

Above class meets with AAAD-A399.

CASE A&H, DUS. From slavery to the present, debates have raged among scholars and practitioners concerning the lines of demarcation between sacred and secular forms of African American music. Whether it was slaves who danced their Christianity in the invisible church or the multi- platinum-selling gospel artist Kirk Franklin whose recordings are just as likely to surface on Billboard’s r&b chart as on its list of top gospel, or Richard Penniman, (better known as ‘Little Richard”) who three-times renounced a career in popular music to perform gospel instead, the history of African American music is replete with artists and repertoire which challenge conventional Judeo-Christian musical and aesthetic values. Utilizing an ethnomusicological perspective, which foregrounds the significance of culture in the formation and expression of musical values, this course will explore those inter- and intra-cultural dynamics which define the sacred/secular continuum in African American musics.

F420 American Country Music
1:00P-2:15P Monday/Wednesday
Instructor: Brandon Barker
Location: 800 N Indiana Ave
Course #: 30340

CASE A&H. Jimmie Rodgers, Gene Autry, Dolly Parton, George Jones, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, Blake Shelton, and Miranda Lambert. American Country Music's ability to create superstar performers for the better part of a century is undeniable. This course will survey Country Music's major performers and important historical moments while also considering the genre's folk roots in Appalachian music, southern blues music, and southwestern swing.