27 Quotes by Alan Dundes

I have a great advantage over many of my colleagues inasmuch as my students bring with them to class their own personal knowledge of national, regional, religious, ethnic, occupational, and family folklore traditions.

We should beware of stereotypes as they tend to cramp thinking, but on the other hand, stereotypes exist and they are often transmitted via folklore.

It is important to recognize that folklore is not simply a way of obtaining available date about identity for social scientists; it is actually one of the principal means by which an individual and a group discovers or establishes his or its identity.

The study of folklore is largely the study of particular folklore genres: myth, folktale, legend, ballad, proverb, riddle, superstition, etc.

Folklore provides a socially sanctioned outlet for the discussion of the forbidden and taboo.

I find all folklore challenging, and I never cease to be grateful that I became a professional folklorist.

As a folklorist, I have come to believe that no piece of folklore continues to be transmitted unless it means something - even if neither the speaker nor the audience can articulate what that meaning might be.

There can be no self without other, no identity of group A without a group B.

My own bias in folkloristics is decidedly psychoanalytic. I believe that the vast majority of folklore concerns fantasy, and because of that, I am persuaded that techniques of analyzing fantasy are relevant to folklore data.