Folklore: approaches to study, meanings, historical dynamics

Abstract

The article attempted to conceptualize the term “folklore” taking into account the historical dynamics of the study and understanding of this cultural phenomenon by folkloristics. The main concepts that determine the essence of folklore are considered, a distinction is made between folklore and everyday speech practices. The change of sociality by the people in the XIX–XX centuries is discussed, which led to the fact that most stable social communities produce their own folklore. There is a high heuristic potential of folkloristics, which has theoretical and methodological tools and extensive interdisciplinary connections, which allow not only to systematically study folklore in all its diversity of forms — from archaic to ultramodern — but also to explore the “grassroots” unofficial traditions generated by the city.