Publication Date

6-1977

Advisor(s) - Committee Chair

Burt Feintuch, Lynwood Montell, Jim Miller

Degree Program

Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology

Degree Type

Master of Arts

Abstract

The first and last three months of Allan M. Trout's newspaper column "Greetings" were analyzed to show Trout's use of traditional material in that feature. An overview of previous scholarship concerning folklore in literature revealed a lack of study of the modern newspaper as a transmitter of folk items. The type of feature which Trout wrote was shown to have developed from pre-Civil War journalism. Trout's conception of folklore as a rural, kinetic process was presented through quotations from his books and columns, and "Greetings" was defined as a part of that process rather than as a static literary work. The traditional material in the selected columns was identified and classified under the genres of folk speech, belief and custom, legends and anecdotes, author-title jokes, riddles, song lyrics and poetry, and games. The shortcomings of "Greetings" as a folklore collection were identified. Allan Trout was defined as a nonacademic, passive collector of traditional items who worked through a popular medium. Speculation was made as to Trout's roles as a transmitter and a popularizer of folklore. The value of the bound "Greetings" volumes was shown to be hindered by the lack of an index for the column.

Disciplines

Anthropology | Folklore | Social and Behavioral Sciences

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