Vol. 69, No. 3/4 – Summer/Fall, 2010

Special Issue: Folklore: Essays in Honor of Jay Mechling

Edited by Simon J. Bronner, with the Assistance of Maria Teresa Agozzino

Framing Folklore: An Introduction

Simon J. Bronner

Articles

Accounting for Jokes: Jocular Performance in a Critical Age

Gary Alan Fine and Christine Wood

 

ABSTRACT: In this essay, drawing on the research of Elizabeth and Jay Mechling, we focus on the politics of joking and examine the ways in which jokes and joke-telling serve complex political ends. To do this, we provide examples from focus groups, interviews, and popular culture. We attempt to draw lines between those jokes that contribute to a toxic racial environment and other jokes, referencing secondary racial characteristics, that have the potential for creating an integrated community of laughter. KEYWORDS: joking, humor, politics, civil society, poflular culture

The Athlete, the Doctor, and the Patient: Framing the Game Against the Odds

Richard Raspa

 

ABSTRACT: The action of an unknown physician who saved the life of an unknown cancer patient bears more than a little resemblance to the famous action of a celebrated athlete who hit the winning home run during a World Series game. The athlete played under scorching physical handicaps as the physician played another kind of game under bureaucratic handicaps. Both responded to a crisis in the same way: they framed their action as play. KEYWORDS: cancer, athlete, crisis, frame, play

Jay Mechling, Margaret Mead, Masculinities, and Me

Donna M. Lanclos

 

ABSTRACT: More than 10 years separates my initial research on playground folklore in Belfast, Northern lreland, from now. The process of teaching has generated fresh interpretations of research I thought had been thoroughly worked over. In the discussion that follows, in the use of folklore materials to support theoretical arguments, as well as my attention to themes of masculinity and contemporary culture, I pay tribute to Jay Mechling's work. KEYWORDS: childhood, folklore, frames, Margaret Mead, masculinity

The Political Lives of Avatars: Play and Democracy in Virtual Worlds

Kimberly J. Lau

 

ABSTRACT: Although the internet is no longer seen as a way of facilitating communications unfettered by the material realities of “identity,” alternative public spaces instantiated by MMORPGs might yet prove to be productive sites of democratic exchange. This article investigates how understandings of “real” and “make-believe”—together with the psychological and technological underpinnings of avatar identity—influence social commentaries and political discourses that contribute to a public sphere removed from the constraints of hegemonic identity formations. KEYWORDS: role playing games, democratic exchange, identity, avatar, political discourse

The Ape that Captured Time: Folklore, Narrative, and the Human-Animal Divide

Tok Thompson

 

ABSTRACT: Recent advances in animal studies have documented the widespread use of learned, symbolic communication in the animal kingdom. Meanwhile, Mechling (1989) has argued that folklore, as shared learned traditions, also exists in non-human animals. Considering that many scholars believe humans are unique in our ability to tell stories, this schism between human and animal, the story and other folklore, has a great deal to tell us about the outlines and origins of humanity. This article seeks to integrate arguments from linguistics, archaeology, primatology, folklore, and cognitive science from evolutionary perspectives. KEYWORDS: narrative, evolution, storytelling, play, animal language