Extending beyond both Russian and the fairy tale genre alone, this course explores Slavic folklore in two major categories: cultural practice, from magic to social rites and material culture, and lore, from folktales to epic poetry. We survey the folklore of Eastern (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian), Western (Polish, Czech, Slovak) and South (Bulgarian, Croat, Serb, Macedonian, Slovenian) Slavs. This course offers knowledge of these places of the world while also showing how the study of folklore intersects with topics in cultural theory, literature, and history. Assignments will include participation, weekly posts/quizzes, and mid-term and final papers.
