Fakelore

Fakelore is neither a survival or revival. Fakelore is synthetic writing claiming to be genuine folklore. Paul Bunyan stories are an example because they were written for what some believe to be marketing purposes, and are not originally oral stories told from generation to generation.

Richard M. Dorson was an early "formally trained" folklorist and he spent a lot of his time arguing against fakelore.

After discussion on the issue of fakelore in class, I agree that fakelore is important and plays a part in folklore. One interesting issue discussed is why Dorson talked a lot about Paul Bunyan being fakelore but not the Grimm Brother's collection of fairytales even though the Grimms made changes to the stories. I can understand how it would be impossible to get everyone to regard the Grimm Brothers as fakelore since they are so well known and studied.

It is interesting to me that since I have taken this class, I look at things differently. I would have never analyzed the Blair Witch Project with a folkloric eye before, but now there are a lot of things I see and hear that make me think about folklore and how it relates.