Livre - American folk legend

Although local legends abound in every corner of the land, the study of American Folk Legend is still in its infancy. The Conference on American Folk Legend held at UCLA in 1969 went a long way toward charting the course that scholars must travel to make this interesting corpus of folklore known to American scholars as well as to the general public. This collection of essays by fourteen well-known folklorists from the United States and Canada indicates the range of study needed-from field collecting to the classification and analysis of material. Among the subjects treated in this volume is an examination of the general concept of legend, an attempt to reach a definition of precisely what a folk legend is, and explorations of a variety of approaches useful in the study of the genre, including the psychology of legends. Also discussed are the function of legends in history and literature, the contrasts between American and European legends, and the role of legends in modern society. The conference also pointed up the need for systematic fieldwork to bring in legends still alive on the lips of elderly folk informants in all parts of the country, as well as for the early editing and publication of copious material already in folklore archives and in many collections of local history and antiquities in the keeping of state and local historical societies. The contributors to this volume are: Robert A. Georges, UCLA; Alan Dundes, University of California, Berkeley; Albert B. Friedman, Claremont Graduate School; Herbert Halpert, Memorial University, Newfoundland; Linda Degh, Indiana University; Richard M. Dorson, Indiana University; Americo Paredes, University of Texas at Austin; Stanley L. Robe, UCLA; Horace E Beck, Middlebury College; D. K. Wilgus, UCLA; Lynwood Montell, Western Kentucky University; Don Yoder, University of Pennsylvania; Jan Harold Brunvand, University of Utah; and Barre Toelken, University of Oregon. Convener of the conference and editor of the proceedings is Wayland D. Hand, director of UCLA’s Center for the Study of Comparative Folklore and Mythology, well-known scholar in the field of legend study as well as in the closely related field of popular beliefs and superstitions. Published under the auspices of the Center for the Study of Comparative Folklore and Mythology, University of California, Los Angeles.