William A. Wilson

The Deeper Necessity: Folklore and the Humanities

Because folklore arises from human responses to recurring human situations, it should play a crucial role in humanities curricula. Folklorists too often fail to convince their colleagues in the humanities offolklores importance because they treatfolklore as handmaiden to other disciplines, because they are too occupied with the past at the expense of the present, and because they pay more attention tofolk groups than to the broader humanity they share.