Contents of FF Network 19
(March 2000)
- A decade of renewed Folklore Fellows by Lauri Honko
-
FFSS99 workshop reports:
-The politics of textualisation
-The diversity of oral epics
-Principles of fieldwork and archiving - Summer School 2001
- Summer School 2001: Application form
- Comments on FFSS99
(FFN 19, March 2000: 1)
On January 29, 1990, four members of the Finnish Academy of
Science and Letters signed a letter to the Board of the Academy
proposing that the “Folklore Fellows”, a concept surviving in the
name of Folklore Fellows’ Communications, a monograph series
published by the Academy since 1910, be revived as a modern
international network of folklorists. A return to the original model, a
network of local folklore societies mainly in European countries,
which existed for about two decades in the beginning of the century,
was deemed impractical. What was needed now was a global network
of individual researchers.
The four signatories were Lauri Honko, Matti Kuusi, Anna-Leena
Siikala and Leea Virtanen. They outlined three tasks for the renewed
Folklore Fellows. First, an international network of 100 full members
and an unlimited number of associate members to be established by
invitation; information to circulate among members and relevant
research institutions. Second, international scholarly training
courses entitled Folklore Fellows’ Summer School would be
introduced. Third, the editing of the FF Communications would
continue with a broad recruitment of international folklorists in
mind.
On February 5, 1990, the Board of the Academy accepted the
proposal and ratified the Rules for the Folklore Fellows providing two
bodies, an Executive Committee consisting of four Finnish members
of the Academy and an Advisory Committee consisting of 10 scholars
from outside Finland and the Executive Committee. The nomination of
full members became the task of the Advisory Committee, whereas
the daily running of other affairs was left to the Executive Committee.
Looking back after ten years, the three tasks seem to have been
fulfilled. The Folklore Fellows today have 25 honorary, 87 full and
484 associate members who receive the FF Network bulletin and a
20% discount on FF Communications. FF Network is presently sent
free to 945 individuals and 320 institutions. The material is
extensively available on the Internet. Scholarly networks around
special topics such as Oral Epics and Gender Studies have been
introduced. Several smaller conferences have been organised by these
networks, whereas global meetings of folklorists have been left to
others, mainly the International Society for Folk-Narrative Research.
The present issue brings vivid testimony that the Folklore
Fellows’ Summer School is well and thriving. The number of volumes
in FFC is 2-5 per year, each new volume being instantly reviewed in
the FF Network bulletin. We feel that Folklore Fellows fills a niche of
some international relevance to folklore studies. With us, to be sure,
“folklore” is not in any crisis; it is a source of solid scholarly
motivation.
It is time to thank all the friends who have helped us along the
way, especially the FF Summer School Organising Committee and
Staff, the Advisory Committee, and the authors of FFC. We feel
confident in beginning a new decade.