Emerging Perspectives in the Study of Folklore and Performance

Just over half a century ago, the rise in what became known as the ＂performance turn＂ in folklore studies led to the diffusion of performance as both a lens and a key concept across a wide range of humanistic disciplines. Now, it’s time to take stock of the myriad ways in which performance and folklore studies have developed along both parallel and intersecting paths.

Emerging Perspectives in the Study of Folklore and Performance reveals the captivating world where folklore and performance studies meet up, revealing both the connections and disparities between the two fields. From the mid-20th century to the present day, luminaries like Richard Bauman, Erving Goffman, Roger Abrahams, Charles Briggs, Richard Schechner, Dell Hymes, José Esteban Muñoz, Peggy Phelan, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Deborah Kapchan, and Diana Taylor have woven a rich tapestry of discourse, seamlessly blending the realms of folklore and performance. Editors Solimar Otero and Anthony Bak Buccitelli present a magnificent collection of chapters that delve into the intricacies of this enduring relationship. These diverse essays explore how folklore and performance intersect in realms as varied as digital culture, social movements, ritual, narrative, race and technology, archival practices, ambient play, post-human intersectionalities, speculative world-making, and embodied knowledge.

Emerging Perspectives in the Study of Folklore and Performance is a must-read for scholars, students, and enthusiasts alike, offering fresh insights into the evolving landscape of folklore and performance studies and transforming the ways that we connect to culture, place, and community.

Solimar Otero is Professor of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, and Gender Studies at Indiana University. She is author of Archives of Conjure: Stories of the Dead in Afrolatinx Cultures and editor with Mintzi Auanda Martínez-Rivera of Theorizing Folklore from the Margins: Critical and Ethical Approaches (IUP, 2021).
Anthony Bak Buccitelli is Associate Professor and Chair of American Studies and Director of the Pennsylvania Center for Folklore at the Pennsylvania State University Harrisburg--Capital College. He is author of City of Neighborhoods: Memory, Folklore, and Ethnic Place in Boston and editor of Race and Ethnicity in Digital Culture: Our Changing Traditions, Impressions, and Expressions in a Mediated World, Volume One.