| The Future of Folklore. USC. Will Rebecca Black and the Light Saber Guy be the folktales of tomorrow? The task of a folklorist is to complicate our myths and scrutinize our stories. Increasingly, folklorists are also the ones who interpret our fondness for cute kitten videos and tales of celebrity meltdowns. What do our legends tell us about ourselves? How do ideas shift from diversion to custom to belief? And, as the world moves online, what does it mean when a snippet of video spreads and mutates and becomes a part of our shared cultural reference within a matter of weeks? See http://www.westernfolklore.org/2011Meeting.htm |
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