Folklore and Folklife - Courses - Fall 2002 - FOLK 280 401 Jewish Folklore

For more information about Folklore and Folklife,at UPenn, contact Professor Dan Ben-Amos at dbamos@sas.upenn.edu.

For assistance with the Folklore and Folklife website, contact Linda Lee at lindalee@sas.upenn.edu.

FOLK 280 401 Jewish Folklore

Dan Ben-Amos
Lecture: Tuesday, Thursday 10:30-12:00
Contact: Dr. Dan Ben-Amos: 215.898.5857; dbamos@sas.upenn.edu
Cross-listed: AMES 243, COML 283, JWST 260, RELS 221
General Requirement II: History and Tradition

The Jews are among the few nations and ethnic groups whose oral tradition occurs in literary and religious texts dating back more than two thousand years. This tradition changed and diversified over the years in terms of the migrations of Jews into different countries and the historical, social, and cultural changes that these countries underwent. The course attempts to capture the historical and ethnic diversity of Jewish folklore in a variety of oral literary forms. A basic book of Hasidic legends from the 18th century will serve as a key text to explore problems in Jewish folklore relating to both earlier and later periods.

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