Folklore Experts

People to Know

Sir James George Frazer

1854-1951; Scottish scolar

1st study comparative mythology and folklore (common themes w/ primitive cultures & modern Christianity)

The Golden Bough- 1922; influential studies on mythology/ folklore

Sigmund Freud

1856-1939

Austrian neurologist : Father of psychoanalysis

unconscious feelings were expressed in private dreams and publicly myths and folktales

Carl Jung

1875-1961

Swiss Freudian psychoanalyst : collective unconscious

archetypes- symbolic patterns of thought and character

Joseph Campbell

1904-1987

American Jungian scholar : comparative mythology

Hero’s myths originate to fulfill any unrealized psychological need

Bruno Bettelheim

1903-1990

Freudian psychoanalyst : folktales are beneficial for children as it enables abstact symbolism to their crisis

Max Luthi

1909

Swiss Scholar : European folk literature

folktales - originated from dream a fantasy or ecstatic experience

Marie-Louise von Franz

1915-1998

Swiss Jungian psychologist

applied Jungian theory to fairy tales

Jan Harold Brunvand

1933

contemporary American expert on urban legends

professor emeritus at the University of Utah

evolutions of ULs throughout time and into other fields (Literature, comic books, film, television, music, and the Internet

Maria Tatar

1945

Contemporary American folklorist

Professor of German Languages and literature at Harvard (complex approach to folktales)

Jack Zipes

Contemporary fairy tale expert & translator

Professor of German at University of Minnesota

Edited the Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales

Translated Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales