by Bob Trubshaw
Published by Explore Books
Description
'A howling success, which plugs a big and obvious gap'
Professor Ronald Hutton
"Highly Recommended" by the Folklore Society's Katharine Briggs
Folklore Award 2003
There have been fascinating developments in the study of folklore in the
last twenty-or-so years, but few books about British folklore and folk
customs reflect these exciting new approaches. As a result there is a
huge gap between scholarly approaches to folklore studies and 'popular
beliefs' about the character and history of British folklore. Explore
Folklore is the first book to bridge that gap, and to show how much 'folklore'
there is in modern day Britain.
Explore Folklore shows there is much more to folklore than morris dancing
and fifty-something folksingers! The rituals of 'what we do on our holidays',
funerals, stag nights and 'lingerie parties' are all full of 'unselfconsious'
folk customs. Indeed, folklore is something that is integral to all our
lives – it is so intrinsic we do not think of it as being 'folklore'.
The implicit ideas underlying folk lore and customs are also explored.
There might appear to be little in common between people who touch wood
for luck (a 'tradition' invented in the last 200 years) and legends about
people who believe they have been abducted and subjected to intimate body
examinations by aliens. Yet, in their varying ways, these and other 'folk
beliefs' reflect the wide spectrum of belief and disbelief in what is
easily dismissed as 'superstition'.
Explore Folklore provides a lively introduction to the study of most genres
of British folklore, presenting the more contentious and profound ideas
in a readily accessible manner.
Published by Explore Books, an imprint of Heart of Albion Press.
ISBN 1 872883 60 5. September 2002.
Demi 8vo (215 x 138 mm), 196 xii pages, 4 b&w photos, 4 line drawings,
paperback
£9.95
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