The study of folklore has historically focused on the daily life and culture of regular people, such as artisans, storytellers, and craftspeople. But what can folklore reveal about strategies of belonging, survival, and reinvention in moments of crisis?

The experience of living in hostile conditions for cultural, social, political, or economic reasons has redefined communities in crisis. The curated works in Theorizing Folklore from the Margins offer clear and feasible suggestions for how to ethically engage in the study of folklore with marginalized populations. By focusing on issues of critical race and ethnic studies, decolonial and antioppressive methodologies, and gender and sexuality studies, contributors employ a wide variety of disciplines and theoretical approaches. In doing so, they reflect the transdisciplinary possibilities of Folklore studies.

By bridging the gap between theory and practice, Theorizing Folklore from the Margins confirms that engaging with oppressed communities is not only relevant, but necessary.

About the Author

Solimar Otero is Professor of Folklore in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University. She is author of Archives of Conjure: Stories of the Dead in Afrolatinx Cultures and of Afro-Cuban Diasporas in the Atlantic World. She is editor (with Toyin Falola) of Yemoja: Gender, Sexuality, and Creativity in the Latina/o and Afro-Atlantic Diasporas. Mintzi Auanda Martinez-Rivera is Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Providence College. She has published articles on the indigenous rock movement in Mexico, indigenous popular culture, and the use of food as decorations.

Reviews

This powerful collection of 16 critical essays takes aim at the myriad forms in whichhate, violence, othering, disenfranchisement, etc., manifest in social life as the resultof dominant power structures supported by the "legacies of white supremacy,homophobia, misogyny, xenophobia, ableism, and other injustices and forms ofdiscrimination" (19). It is these power structures, among others, that have keptcertain individuals and communities at the margins. The "margins," as presented in thebook, vary by author and range from the physical (such as prisons) to the symbolic (asin the intersections between methodologies and ideas). . . . The result is an illuminating, moving, and reflexivity-inducing work that takes us into and through very different marginal worlds "among, and with, Mexican, Wolof, Native American, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Haitian, Martinican, Andean, North American, African Diaspora, and LGBTQI folk cultures and communities"(13).

-- Julian Antonio Carrillo * Journal of Folklore and Education *



Book Information
ISBN 9780253056078
Author Solimar Otero
Format Paperback
Page Count 352
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press
Weight(grams) 544g