Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Maine Folklife, Vol. 6, Iss. 2, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

We recently completed the NEH sponsored preservation of endangered tape recordings. Over the course of the two-year grant period we built and equipped a first-class sound lab and copied over 600 hours of audio tape-recorded material to high quality preservation master reels — over 250 hours of which were also copied to public-access CD-Rs. We also expanded and standardized our finding aides for these accessions, which are among the oldest and most valuable in our collection. Now that we have the equipment and necessary procedures in place, we will continue the preservation program as part of our regular work load. …

Always The Same Old Story: How Urban Legends Develop And Spread In Modern America, Stephanie S. Gardner

Publications

This thesis is a study of the common themes shared by traditional folklore and modern American urban legends. The author consulted expert mythologists such as Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell and Marie-Louise von Franz to research the prevalent themes of fairy tales and fables. She identified archetypes and psychological motifs in stories from the past and present. They show that the themes of these stories explain human existence and are repeated in cultures around the world as a means of social control.

Maine Folklife, Vol. 6, Iss. 1, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

Pamela Dean has joined the staff of the Maine Folklife Center as archivist of the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History. A native of Bar Harbor, Dean received her Bachelor of Arts and Masters Degree in history from the University of Maine and her Ph.D. in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. From 1991 to 1999 she was the director of the Williams Center for Oral History at Louisiana State University.

"My career as an archivist and oral historian began in Sandy lves's fieldwork class in the early eighties," Dean said. "You know that book …

The Pitchman In Print: Oral Performance Art In Text And Context, Joseph Ugoretz

Publications and Research

Oral performance art, patterned performative speech for an audience, is perhaps the oldest and most ubiquitous human art form. Specific instances of this art include the performances of griots and guslars, troubadors and shamans, as well as rappers and riddlers, preachers and politicians. While this art form is by definition oral, it is also the case that, frequently, literary art has represented oral performance art. There is written art which depicts oral art, which describes it, appropriates it, criticizes and co‑opts it.

In this dissertation, I define oral performance art as constituting a separate and unique artistic genre, one which …