Locating Irish Folklore
Tradition, Modernity, Identity
Diarmuid Ó Giolláin
Published by Cork University Press
Folklore is variously subject matter and critical discourse, amateur
enthusiasm and academic discipline, residual agrarian culture and
popular urban culture of the present, as well as a resource for local
historians and for committed nation builders. As an introduction to
folklore from an Irish perspective, this book plots the development of
the notion of folklore and locates it historically, politically and
socially. Locating Irish Folklore examines the pivotal role
folklore has played in identity formation but it also questions the
usefulness of the concept today in an era of unprecedented cultural
circulation.
There are few countries that offer as much scope for an analysis of
this sort as Ireland. The author usefully locates the Irish experience
within a comparative, interdisciplinary framework, using European
folklore and ethnological research and Latin American cultural theory
among other analytical perspectives. The first of its kind, this book is
a key text for the study of folklore and will be of interest to anyone
working in the area of folklore and ethnology, anthropology and cultural
studies.
(Diarmuid Ó Giolláin teaches folklore and ethnology in University College, Cork)
