History, Theory, and Methods of Folklore (Volume 1 and 2)

Author: Zhou Xing, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-03-21
Features: Since the Reform and Opening-Up, Chinese folkloristics has made remarkable progress and has become one of the "eminent disciplines" in Chinese social sciences and humanities. In recent years, various theoretical works, studies on the history of the discipline and the history of academic thought, ethnographic monographs and fieldwork reports, thematic research findings, and popular reading materials related to Chinese folkloristics have been published one after another, attracting widespread attention from academic circles both at home and abroad, as well as from various sectors of Chinese society. At the same time, many university departments have successively introduced folkloristics courses into their undergraduate curricula, and graduate schools with master's and doctoral degree programs in folkloristics and related fields have been rapidly increasing. With the rapid economic growth and the construction of a harmonious society, Chinese society has clearly and continuously shown a trend of reevaluating and reviving traditional folk culture. The demand for folkloristics knowledge has not only emerged in undergraduate and graduate education but also throughout society. This book is edited and published in response to this professional educational and public knowledge demand. The theme of this book is "The History, Theory, and Methods of Folkloristics," aiming to introduce, in a relatively concentrated manner, the development of folkloristics in China and major countries, as well as its fundamental academic concepts, theories, academic traditions, schools, research methods, and techniques. The intended readership includes undergraduate students interested in folkloristics, particularly those who have just entered the field through master's and doctoral programs in folkloristics or related disciplines, members of the Chinese Folklore Society, and individuals from all walks of life who are particularly concerned with folk culture issues and the development of Chinese folkloristics. The editors hope that this book will become a foundational Chinese reading material for folkloristics. Although international academic exchanges in folkloristics have been quite active, and the shared folkloristic concepts among international scholars are numerous, considering that folkloristics in different countries has basically developed under its own specific social and historical contexts, with distinct growth trajectories and academic traditions, this book introduces folkloristics in five groups of essays: China, Japan, South Korea, North America, and Germany.