Spring 2018 Classes
RELATED SPRING 2018 COURSES
Some of the Folklore-related classes offered at UC Berkeley in Spring 2018 include:
Folklore 160AC: Forms of Folklore. Professor Charles Briggs.
Tues & Thurs 2:00-3:30, 3 LeConte. 4 units. (Class #31967)
This course focuses on how all of us construct notions of difference attached to race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, and nation through folklore. It traces how identities are constructed and performed in a wide range of genres. A broad range of analytic perspectives, including historic-geographic, psychoanalytic, Marxist, feminist, and linguistic approaches and those centering on the ethnography of speaking and performance are used in analyzing genres of folklore, including jokes, proverbs, riddles, folk speech, folk tales, legends, rumors, myths, and charms as well as superstitions, festivals, games, folk art, folk music, and vernacular healing.
Anthropology 162, Topics in Folklore: Ecofeminist Fairy Tales. Professor Mary Hufford.
Wed & Fri, 5:00-6:30 PM, Barrows 587. 4 units. (Class #32795)
This course introduces students to the history and organization of fairy tale studies, with special attention to transformations of fairy tale players, plots, and landscapes (especially forests) as these relate to root causes of, and narrative solutions to, present ecological crises. Using an ecofeminist framework we will bring anthropological and ecological perspectives to bear on textual and cinematic variants of classic fairy tales produced over the past four centuries, including Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Hansel and Gretel, Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Mother Holle, and Molly Whuppie.
Anthropology 217: Discourses and/of the Body. Professor Charles Briggs.
Wed 11:00-1:00, Kroeber 219. 4 units. (Class #39701)
This course juxtaposes discourse analysis and approaches to health and biomedicine, querying how ideologies of language and communication provide implicit foundations for work on health, disease, medicine, and the body and how biopolitical discourses and practices inform constructions of discourse.
Anthropology 262B, Theories of Traditionality and Modernity, Professor Mary Hufford.
Wednesdays 3:00-5:00 PM, Kroeber 115. 4 units. (Class #22235)
What is needed for an “ecologically adequate” folklore hidden by modernity’s legacy of dualisms? This seminar explores emerging concepts and models for shaping interdisciplinary, multi-sectoral collaborative research through engagement with the kinds of expressive behavior and settings long affiliated with folklore, through readings including Arendt, Dewey, Bakhtin, Schutz, Merleau-Ponty, Bateson, Marx, and Bourdieu, Bauman, Bendix, Briggs, Cantwell, Dorst, Hafstein, Kapchan, Noyes, Shuman, Taylor, Titon, Young and others.
Music 247: Theorizing Music Heritage. Professor Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco.
Fridays 9:00 AM- 12:00 PM. Hargrove 210. 4 units. (Class #41352)
Focusing primarily on Portugal, the seminar will address notions of authenticity, authorship and ownership; the use of heritage as a political tool and as an economic resource; the impact of UNESCO’s convention on national and regional legislation; cultural policy and government investment on safeguarding and promoting heritage; the tensions between the universal claims of heritage practice and national and regional perspectives; the uses of heritage by the tourist industry; the development of heritage industries; the impact of heritagization on the sustainability of music and dance traditions, performance practice and aesthetics.
History of Art 203: Seminar in Material Culture: The Interpretation of Objects. Professor Margaretta M Lovell.
Mondays 2:00 pm - 4:59 pm; Doe Library 308B. 2 or 4 units. (Class #39364)
This seminar looks at both material culture theory and the many ways scholars understand, 'read,' and interpret objects. It draws on the practices and questions of multiple disciplines including archaeology, anthropology, cultural geography, and art history. It considers painting, architecture, works on paper, textiles, metal objects, ceramics, clothing, baskets, and objects of wood, We will consider the variety of ways and contexts in which objects have been understood to 'speak' as aesthetic vehicles and as cultural texts.
History 188C (Near Eastern Studies 188C): Magic, Religion, and Science: The Ancient and Medieval Worlds. Professor Maria Mavroudi, Assistant Professor Rita Lucarelli.
Tues & Thurs, 11:00 AM-12:30 PM, Hearst Mining Hall 390. 4 units. (Class #39645)
This course will explore magic as an experimental science within the learned traditions of civilizations that we consider as fundamental for a modern Western identity: from ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome to the medieval and early modern Middle East, Byzantium, and Europe. The primary sources used for this exploration will be texts on demons, magic, divination, and the sophisticated philosophical background to such beliefs. In addition, archeological remains pertinent to these practices such as talismans, amulets, and other magical objects will be discussed.
Theatre R1A 002: African American Folktales and Children’s Literature. Lashon Alexandra Daley.
Tues & Thurs 11:00-12:30, Dwinelle 89. 4 units. (Class #31012)
This course focuses on answering: What is African American folklore? What is African American children's literature? What purpose and function do they serve? As students read, write, and perform African American folktales and children’s literature, they will be developing their own stylistic voice and performance creativity. Accordingly, students will be required to develop and perform folktales from their own communities. Students will also significantly improve their ability to verbally communicate in performance and storytelling.
Chicano Studies 20 001: Introduction to Chicano Culture. Lecturer Pablo Gonzalez.
Tues & Thurs 9:30-11:00 AM, Barrow 180. 4 units. (Class #39435)
An introduction to the cultural life of Chicanos with its regional differences. Key themes are the symbols and cultural norms created by the historical interaction between Chicanos and American society as expressed in literature, art, music, and folklore. Attention will also be given to change and continuity in Chicano cultural norms on the basis of historical events.
Slavic 24: The Mystery and Fascination of the Balkans. Professor Ronelle Alexander.
Wednesday 11:00 AM-12:00 PM, Dwinelle 6307. 1 unit. (Class #39156)
The Balkans as a region have always fascinated Westerners, ranging from intrepid eighteenth- and nineteenth-century travelers seeking the exotica of “Turkey in Europe” to their modern cohorts who become enamored of Balkan culture, and especially its music. In this class we will explore two basic questions about the Balkans: What is it that makes the region such a land of contradictions and fascination? And why–especially after the intense media attention to the violent breakup of Yugoslavia–does it remain so little understood?
Celtic 129: Aspects of Modern Celtic Cultures and Folklore. Lecturer Thomas Walsh.
Mon, Wed, Fri 10:00 AM-11:00 AM, Dwinelle 223. 4 units. (Class #39095)
Among the concerns of the course will be: the ideology of Celticism; the folklore of these cultures; the reception of Celtic material by modern mainstream culture in film and the other arts; the development of literary and other aesthetic forms in Celtic cultures, including fiction, drama, lyric, and other genres. Some working questions for us will be: “How are certain cultural forms and practices specific to modern Celtic cultures?” “How do those forms affect the non-Celtic mainstream in Europe and beyond Europe?” In what ways do Celtic cultures emerge as oppressed, under-represented, and exploited within the recent centuries of revolution and de-colonization?”
Scandinavian 160: Scandinavian Myth and Religion. Assistant Professor Jonas Wellendorf.
Mon, Wed, Fri 10:00 AM-11:00 AM, Etchevery 3106. 4 units. (Class #32585)
Who were the Norse gods? Why did they have to die? And how do we know? This course presents a survey of Scandinavian myth and religion from prehistory through the conversion to Christianity (eleventh century), as illustrated in narrative and, to a lesser extent, archaeological materials. The approach will be primarily source-critical, with some use of comparative materials from other mythologies. By the end of the course, students should know the sources well, have an understanding of the major problems involved in this study, and be aware of the more important scholarly trends in the field.