East European Folklore

Undergraduate / Graduate

Folklore is the expressive culture communities make for themselves. In Eastern Europe, a region home to many different ethnic, religious, and linguistic communities, folklore offers a window onto histories of coexistence, difference, and adaptation. This interdisciplinary course explores oral and material traditions among the Slavic, Romanian, Albanian, and other East European groups. We will encounter magical beasts and heroes in oral tales that have fascinated writers from the Brothers Grimm and Goethe to Bram Stoker. We will analyze how folklore genres-from vampire tales and heroic epics to wedding rituals-imagine the individual's place in the community and in relation to the sacred. Texts and practices will be studied through the lenses of anthropology, history, and folklore theory, drawing on thinkers such as Mary Douglas, Arnold van Gennep, Vladimir Propp, and Albert Lord. But folklore is also a participatory culture, so experiential learning is central to the course: students will explore folklore through storytelling, cooking, and hands-on projects, to illuminate how living traditions help build group coherence while making space for individuality and creativity. Local musicians will lead us in the dazzling dance rhythms of the circle dance known by many names in the region.