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Facets of Transnationalism in the Late Nineteenth Century: New Perspectives on the History of Folklore Studies

‘The many indications that the study and collection of Folk-lore is now engaging the attention of most countries in Europe make it necessary that this Society, being the first to introduce a systematic study of Folk-lore, should as far as possible work in unison and confederation with similar organizations abroad, and should draw within its membership foreign scholars and students.’1

This quote is from the annual report, published on 2 June 1886, of the Folklore Society—one of the earliest professional associations in the discipline of folklore studies (known in German-speaking regions today as Empirische Kulturwissenschaft, Europäische Ethnologie, or Kulturanthropologie). At the time, ‘folklore studies’ mainly meant the study of ‘the people’s’ customs, fairy tales, legends, oral traditions, and so on—although its disciplinary boundaries were not yet strict, but were still shifting. The quote refers to an aspect of the history of the discipline that has thus far received little attention: the transnational activities of actors and institutions. Although the institutionalization of the discipline, was often in close step with national and even National Socialist aspirations, the question arises as to how this development was related to the global and imperial interests that equally characterized this period. Was there also activity across national borders in the early phases of the discipline? And if so, what were the impacts of its successes and failures?

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  1. ‘The Folk-Lore Society: Eighth Annual Report of the Council. 2nd June, 1886’, Folk-Lore Journal, 4/4 (1886), 369–74, at 369. []