Following Tradition: Folklore in the Discourse of American Culture

Following Tradition: Folklore in the Discourse of American Culture. By Simon J. Bronner. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1998. $49.95. xv + 599pp. Illus. ISBN 0 87421 239 1

This book is an extended historiographical essay on the rise of American folklore studies. Opening with the sentence, "This book is about an American tradition, not arguing about it," Bronner then does precisely that, setting out the case for the role "tradition" has played in the shaping of American culture and the seminal role folkloristics has played in the defining and representing of that tradition.

Bronner's case, densely argued in the opening chapter, is that "the relation of self and community to the nation" is central to any exploration of the "discourse of culture." Moreover, the manner in which this relationship is comprehended and defined is not static, but dynamic; here, Bronner provides an insightful analysis of the shifting relationship of "folkloristics" and "tradition" within American culture.

Following the opening, defining chapters Bronner sets out a series of casestudies of the key influences on the creation of the American tradition. These casestudies, in addition to a review of major American folklorists, include chapters on England and on the German influence on American culture as exercised through the Brothers Grimm. This chapter is a valuable bibliographic essay on the English language editions of the fairytales. Bronner's analysis of the role of Hollywood in the mediation of Grimm's fairytales and of Marchen generally, and into the wider domain of popular culture, is particularly valuable. It also draws attention to the resultant privileging of a Eurocentric tradition of fairytales.

In addition to an exploration of "tradition" in what Bronner calls the "Gilded Age," there are chapters built around such key figures as Richard Dorson, Martha Warren Beckwith and the Shoemakers, Henry and Alfred. Within these chapters, the reader is presented with a considerable amount of biographical information, some of it reasonably well known, but some of it describing a gallery of exotic characters such as Lafcadio Hearn. However, these are not mere biographical essays, for the author uses the lives and academic careers of the folklorists to explore the shifting ground of the perceptions of what folklore is, how the concept of "tradition" changes, and how these changes become part of a wider American culture. One feels a sense of deja vu in reading of the rise and subsequent fall of so many folklore chairs, departments and institutes.

Bronner is excellent in identifying changing issues in the current constituents of tradition. For example, he is aware that the rhetoric of tradition within the press and the media generally forces us to address the issues of folklore in an increasingly culturally mixed society. Bronner cites the rise in ethnic and gender sensitivity and its impact on "traditional" tales. The lessons are equally relevant in England where, for example, changes in the ethnic mix of school populations has led in the last ten years to a demise of the folk play in Rochdale, a tradition which had had a continuous existence among the children of that town for at least a hundred years.

The author is essentially optimistic in his views on the future role of folkloristics and this includes English folkloristics as well as the discipline in America. Whilst the "Great Team" of English folklorists clearly had an influence on the establishment of the American Folklore Society, the strength of the Anglo-American influence waxed and waned. Bronner discusses Dorson's "discovery" of the Folklore Society's library and the manner in which it led to a growth in the number of courses on British folklore in the American universities. Bronner now sees that the rise of "cultural studies" in England could bring about a re-establishment of a further period of academic closeness. However, as he himself points out, the work of Kirshenblatt-Gimblett suggests that the view has its opponents and that there is a need to debate the differences between folkloristics and cultural studies as well as the parallels. The debate is an important one. In these days of limited, and diminishing rather than expanding, academic places for folklorists, one could wish that colleagues in England could look beyond our Frazerian and Tylorian roots and realise that we do have a great deal to contribute to the analysis of present day English culture--much in the manner in which Bronner sees that impact in America.

The book is an important survey of its field. It is well written and well illustrated. It concludes with a very useful bibliographical essay.

Eddie Cass, National Centre for English Cultural Tradition, University of Sheffield

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