Although the final will be a "take-home," the essay questions will be designed to measure your knowledge of folklore. Students that keep up with the reading assignments in the Brunvand text, spend time visiting the linked folklore sites, review quizzes, and utilize the "Homefun" sheets as a study aid should do quite well on the final exam. The Exam will consist of 6-8 questions (situations or scenarios), and I have pasted below a "situation" question from a previous final so you can get an idea of what sort of question will be asked and what I am looking for in a student answer.
TYPICAL QUESTION FROM PREVIOUS FINAL EXAM:
Apply your knowledge of folklore to the following situation. The situation supplies a text and a context for your analysis. You should try to show your full understanding of the type of folklore presented. Discuss any relevant insights you have as to the function of the lore, how and why a folklorist might study such lore, and be sure to use relevant terminology. Write your response to the situation in complete sentences, organized paragraphs, and proofread for errors in spelling and punctuation
Situation number 1: "Imagine that you are at a social gathering when you hear that a local teen, a friend of a friend of the informant, got a fantastic deal on a classic 1955 Harley Davidson motorcycle. According to the informant, the teen saw a woman place a for-sale sign on the bike as he was walking by. When he stopped to look at the sign he couldn’t believe his eyes. The woman was selling the $10,000 bike for only fifty dollars. She told the teen that the well running Harley had belonged to her husband, the man that had abandoned her for another woman last month. The husband had just called her an hour ago and asked her to sell his prized motorcycle for him and send the money to an address in Hawaii. She sold the bike to the teen for fifty bucks and sent the check to her soon to be surprised husband."
STUDENT RESPONSE TO ABOVE SITUATION:
This example of an urban legend is not one that I had heard before. However, it had many of the defined elements. The definition of an urban legend according to Jan H. Brunvand, is "a story in a contemporary setting reported as a true individual experience, with traditional variants that indicate its legendary character." This story has all the markings of an urban legend. It is a good story and it contains several of the common markers that have been used to characterize urban legends by folklorists. One is the telling "a friend of a friend" (FOAF) method of verification. This type of "validating formula" is quite popular in urban legend telling. The fact that someone saw something with their own eyes is also a common hook to prove the veracity of the teller’s words. A quick check on the Internet located variants or versions of this story, and the "$50 Porshe" version can be found at snopes.com.
This narrative can be analyzed to discover its draw or power. Folklore asks the question: Why is this story in circulation? Why do people want to tell this story, and why are listeners prone to believe it? This story has the theme of divorce, which is a very potent theme in American culture. The fact that someone else benefited from the husband’s misfortune could symbolize the strong belief in the random nature of luck in divorce, and life. Someone got the bike that didn’t even know these people, as a souvenir of chance. The fact that it is a Harley is also significant due to the high personal value that they hold for their owners. This story implies that she, the woman who was jilted, used the Harley to get back at her husband for his unfaithful behavior--the end result seems to balance out the scale between the troubled couple.
Further, folklorists know that people often talk about things that are difficult to grasp. Folk (people) share stories such as this to help work out their own questions about such topics as divorce, sex, and death. Marriage and other life passages remain central to our emotional lives. If you are a teen, this story is a cautionary tale about marriage:"Be careful, it’s a trap." If you are a woman, you may be attracted to the "she got even" message this story contains. If you are reading this story from the husband’s perspective, you could learn that there are some things more precious than a Harley, or that women are trouble, or that "if you play you will pay." All these perspectives are tied strongly to our human condition and have universal appeal.