Alan Dundes lept into the fray with his LETTER and brief response article, "FOLKLORISTICS REDIVIVUS" to Lingua Franca. He te lls us:

Should you want to post it on your website, you are welcome to do so. If you do, you might want to add a postscript. "In the phone call from LF rejecting my response, the editor wanted me to know that LF does check facts and that the Universi ty of Texas does not grant a doctorate in folklore per se. That is technically true, it is called a "concentration" in folklore in either the English or Anthropology Departments, but I consider the Texas program a de facto folklore doctorate and so do mo st professional folklorists of my acquaintance."

Folklore Graduate student Liz Locke at Indiana University took the initiate and collected over eighty signatures of graduate students from folklore programs all over North America. In a LETTER to Lingua Franca, accompanied by the eighty-plus signatures, Liz Locke explained that Folklore really does exist as a serious discipline, and that the report of our demise was premature, to say the least.

Additional responses to th e article include: Liz Locke, in folklore feminists communication

And check out the letters that Lingua Franca published in the December/January issue.

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