Bruce Jackson 
Folklore Matters [EPUB ebook] 
Incursions in the Field, 1965–2021

Folklore Matters gathers over a half-century of articles, memoirs, field studies, and more by master folklorist Bruce Jackson. Jackson’s wide-ranging view of what makes up folklore, his affection for his subjects, and his keen-eyed ability to observe and record without prejudice stories, songs, and lore from everyone from death-row inmates to numbers runners, hustlers, and legendary blues musicians shines through. In his own words, Jackson’s essays ‘bear witness’ to worlds that others have too easily ignored. This book includes Jackson’s landmark work on prison lore and toasts (the predecessor of rap); labor and criminology; his wide-ranging interest in African American lore and legend; his encounters with legendary figures including Alan Lomax and Pete Seeger; and articles that challenge the many traps and pitfalls that plague much of academic study.
Folklore Matters will delight, inform, and inspire all those who value America’s deepest traditions and the endless creativity of the unrecognized masters of our national culture.

Cuprins

Introduction: Getting Here




Part I: Scenes



1. Prison Folklore



2. In the Valley of the Shadows



3. In the Arctic with Malaurie




Part II: Outside the Law



4. From
In the Life



5. From
A Thief ‘s Primer




Part III: The Folksong Revival



6. The Folksong Revival



7. Skip James: ‘Skippy been places . . .’



8. Liner Notes: Phil Ochs




Part IV: Black Studies



9. The Glory Songs of the Lord



10. The Other Kind of Doctor: Conjure and Magic in Black American Folk Medicine



11. Foreword to Lydia Parrish,
Slave Songs of the Georgia Sea Islands



12. Introduction to
The Negro and His Folklore in Nineteenth-Century Periodicals



13. Prison Worksongs: The Composer in Negatives



14. What Happened to Jody



15. The Afro-American Toast and Worksong: Two Dead Genres




Part V: People



16. Benjamin A. Botkin (1901–1975)



17. Remembering Alan Lomax (January 31, 1915–July 19, 2002)



18. Legman: The King of X700



19. In Prison with Pete Seeger




Part VI: The Folklore Business



20. Things That from a Long Way Off Look Like Flies



21. Folkloristics



22. Arctic Silence: Icy Terror in the Heart of the Smithsonian



23. ‘Only the Sailor Knows the Archipelago’



24. From the Editor: The Humanities at Risk



25. From the Editor: Dead Soldiers and the Arctic Night



Index

Despre autor

Bruce Jackson is SUNY Distinguished Professor and James Agee Professor of American Culture at University at Buffalo. He is author or editor of more than forty books, including
The Story Is True, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded: The Art and Meaning of Telling Stories and
Ways of the Hand: A Photographer’s Memoir, both published by SUNY Press.