Principal Module Aims

The module serves both to encourage you to think in theoretical terms about the ways in which folklore can be historically reconstructed and to expose you to the opportunities and problems presented by a wide variety of evidence. These sources include architecture, material culture, written texts, fairy stories, folktales, nursery rhymes, paintings, plays, poetry, songs, and textiles, as well as more contemporary sources such as film, television and websites. The module draws on insights from a range of neighbouring disciplines including anthropology, archaeology, ethnography, gender studies, history of art, and literary criticism.

Learning Outcomes

• Demonstrate a systematic knowledge and understanding of the history of folklore across continental Europe and the British Isles from prehistory to the present.
• Critically analyse and evaluate a broad range of primary sources (including textual, visual, and material) relating to the history of folklore.
• Effectively communicate ideas, and make informed, coherent and persuasive arguments, relating to the history of folklore across continental Europe and the British Isles from prehistory to the present.
• Critically review and consolidate theoretical, methodological, and historiographical ideas relating to the history of folklore across continental Europe and the British Isles from prehistory to the present.