Vol. 72, No. 1 – Winter, 2013
Articles
Exploring the Record Record Record Record: Reflections on My Adventures with Sound Recordings in the Field of Folklore, Especially at the National Folk Archive at the Library of Congress
Joe Hickerson
The Folklore Macroscope: Challenges for a Computational Folkloristics
Timothy R. Tangherlini
ABSTRACT: Folklorists are poised on the cusp of an exciting new era. The digital revolution has swept over the field of folklore, vastly increasing the amount of accessible research material. To take advantage of these changes, folklorists must develop consistent methods for digitizing, storing, retrieving, displaying and interpreting these materiÂals. Computational methods for the study of traditional culture can help us address these issues, and are essential for the future success of our field. In this essay, I presÂent some of the main challenges for a computational folkloristics, and propose some preliminary approaches to addressing these challenges. KEYWORDS: computational folkloristics, archives, research methods, future of the discipline, digital humanities
Virtually a Local: Folk Geography, Discourse, and Local Identity on the Geospatial Web
Anthony Bak Buccitelli
ABSTRACT: This article offers a provisional theoretical framework for the study of the vernacular practices of digital locality as a means to consider how the externalization of folk memory and folk geography is affecting the relationships between centralized institutions of power and peripheral “local” communities. KEYWORDS: geotagging, hyperlocal, locative media, folk geography, local identity
Covering Captain Cool: The "Miracle on the Hudson" as a Hero Tale
Russell Frank
ABSTRACT: This article examines coverage of the airline pilot who safely “ditched” his disabled aircraft in the Hudson River as a hero tale. The paper concludes that the “Sully” stories may be read, collectively, as a chronicle of how a hero behaved, a guide to how a hero should be behave and a case study of journalistic groupthink. News stories are both determined and determiÂnative; that is, in reflecting the culture's mythos, they reinforce that mythos. KEYWORDS: Folklore and the Media, Mythology, Hero Tale, Structural Analysis, Captain Sullenberger
Review Essays
Reviews
Eric A. Eliason, Black Velvet Art
Reviewed by Elinor Levy
Douglas A. Boyd, Crawfish Bottom: Recovering a Lost Kentucky Community
Reviewed by Troy Reeves
Tina Bucuvalas, editor, The Florida Folklife Reader
Reviewed by Natalie Underberg-Goode
Kelly E. Hayes, Holy Harlots: Femininity, Sexuality, and Black Magic in Brazil
Reviewed by Stephen C. Wehmeyer
John Szwed, Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World
Reviewed by Peter B. Lowry
Alessandro Portelli, They Say in Harlan County: An Oral History
Reviewed by Mary Hufford
Paddy Bowman and Lynne Hamer, editors, Through the Schoolhouse Door: Folklore, Community, Curriculum
Reviewed by Gregory Hansen
Benjamin Radford, Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore
Reviewed by A.A. Hutira