2.5 Сontemporary Folklore

For two and a half centuries the American people were pre dominantly agricultural and rural, a nation of husbandmen The city served as a marketplace for the countryside. Northerners and southerners alike tilled the soil. The outdoor occupations of lumbering, mining, cattle-raising, sailing before the mast, loomed large in the economy. All these conditions appeared propitious for folklore, whose students regarded the hinterland as its proper habitat. Then in the decades following the Civil War, the center of gravity rapidly shifted from country to city, from farm to factory, from old-fashioned ways to new-fangled inventions. A society of hustle and bustle took over the stage; the organization man succeeded the frontier individualist; the tradition-directed pockets of American life dwindled before the onward march of the other-directed generation [4, p. 363]. How in the face of mobility, technology, mass media and mass conformity could folk traditions breathe and survive? And could one speak of “modern” folklore when by definition folklore must have demonstrated its ability to live among human beings for a considerable time?

Folklorists have not attempted to answer these questions, tacitly assuming that the mass culture of contemporary America is traditionless. Yet, paradoxically, vast bodies of folklore have coagulated in the midst of urban industrial America, and intimately touch the lives of city dwellers, college youths, and service men and women [4, p.245].

Depending upon how it is defined, “American” folklore may be pictured as nonexistent, relatively rare, or extremely common. As late as 1930 Alexander H. Krappe, a prominent American folklorist, was still European-oriented enough to take the extreme position that there was no such thing as American folklore, but only a few folkloric importations that eventually lost themselves in our mechanized age. The American Folklore Society itself was formed in 1888 partly to collect the “fast-vanishing remains” of foreign (including black) folklore in the United States; as for the phrase “American Folklore,” that referred to the Indians, or to the nationality of members of the society. Published collections of American folk­lore still appear prefaced with gloomy essays about disappear­ing traditions and the rapid loss of our meager folklore. The other extreme is reached by the many popular books and records that try to boost every scrap of Americana in sight—-old or new—as another example of our profuse national folklore. Most of these publications are very heavy on fakelore—that is, imitation folklore attributed to a group that never possessed it [1, p.207].

One should not be dogmatic about whether American folklore exists in abundance until the terms “American” and “folklore” are explained. Our criteria for “folklore” are “oral, customary, and material tradition,” while for “American” an inclusive definition would be “found in the United States,” and a restrictive one “originated in the United States.” Most American folklorists incline toward the inclusive view, as far as theory is concerned, although their field-collecting emphasizes older American, or at least Americanized, material. For example, while some American folklore collectors have realized that there exist traditional native songs (most of them relatively recent) of protest, industries, parodies, pornography, and the like, what they have collected most vigorously are old British tradi­tional ballads and lyrical songs.

American folklore research has amply demonstrated that there is a substantial body of oral, customary, and material tra­dition circulating in the United States, some of it home-grown, and some transplanted from other cultures. Of course, individ­ual folk practices do fade away, but new ones are constantly ap­pearing, so that the report of the demise of American folklore, as Mark Twain said about the report of his own death, “has been greatly exaggerated.” In a general sense we can say that some types of folklore (such as folk drama) are nearly extinct in the United States; some types survive vigorously in quite ancient forms (such as superstitions); some types have been revived for a popular audience (folk dances and songs); and some types are still being invented along contemporary lines (jokes) [1, p.231].

To assert that folklore is regularly being created and transmit­ted in contemporary American culture is to suggest that “the folk” must now exist in a modern guise. While most attempts to char­acterize the sources of folklore have emphasized isolation, lack of sophistication, and groups with relative homogeneity, judg­ing from the materials that folklorists collect and study, such qualities are certainly not essential to fostering folklore. On the contrary, folklore flourishes among some of the most sophisti­cated and mobile Americans—teen-agers, entertainers, ath­letes, professors, and members of the armed forces. Strict preconceived notions of who “the folk” are have led to much disputing in folklore research when energy might better have been devoted to field work and comparative studies to learn just how folklore actually is developed and put into circulation. To begin such studies, no better definition of “folk” would seem necessary than “anyone who has folklore.” [6, p.173]

Thus in the second chapter we have come to the following conclusion:

2.1 The American folklore is a fundamental creation of many Nations. Indian culture has developed at a high enough level. Even before the advent of America's first white people there existed a beautiful and rich culture of the native Indians. The American folklore gives us an objective and friendly panorama of American life. We can not talk about American folklore, not including in it the folklore of immigrants.

2.2 Studying of the American folklore is a young discipline and so a little studied. Still there are no exact classifications and sistematization of the American folklore. The myth receives in-depth examination. Also the main questions are origin and folklore development, and what factors influenced it. So different areas of researches are engaged in studying of folklore.

2.3 The American folklore took over some of the features of European legends and fairy motifs. Europeans moved their religious views to tribes of Indians, who believed in the supernatural. Legend is an individual creativity of the different nations. But similarities are not only between people, located on the same continent. The similarities are observed in the fairy tales and legends between Europeans and Indians. There are many legends spread through immigrants and have changed over time and have changed over time and became more fit the new location.

2.4 Thanks to Indian tribes was formed a unique culture, which has no equal. It was formed for centuries and from time to time was influenced by the immigrants and foreigners. The great influence was exerted on the culture, language and religion.

The culture of the American colonies was based on face-to-face oral communication – despite growing numbers of books, newspapers, pamphlets, broadsides, and almanacs.

2.5 In contemporary conditions, folklore in many respects ceased to perform its original normative - regulatory functions. However, it is saved and continues to play a role in the culture in general, and in the modern everyday culture. Folklore developed and oriented to contemporary standards, manifests itself in music, literature and culture.