Malinowski's formative contribution to American folklore studies

Korom, Frank J. (author)

Bronisław Malinowski (1884-1942) was a foundational force in the development of function-alist theory in the discipline of anthropology. Based on intensive fieldwork in the Trobriand Islands, his pragmatic theory stimulated much discussion and debate in anthropological circles. Lesser known, however, is the influence that Malinowski had on the development of modern performance studies in the United States among folklore scholars. This research note focuses on Malinowski’s writings concerning the language of myth and magic, since these were the aspects of his work that appealed most to American scholars of performance in the 1970s.

• Language: English
• Keywords: ethnography, folkloristics, sociolinguistics, language, philosophy, magic, myth, performance, context, text, eng
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.07.2024
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: 13 str.
• Numbering: Letn. 2, št. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-187187
• UDC: 398
• ISSN on article: 2820-6088
• DOI: 10.4312/svetovi.2.2.69-81
• COBISS.SI-ID: 204178947
• Publication date in RUL: 09.09.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Svetovi
• Publisher: Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 2820-6088
• COBISS.SI-ID: 148550403

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
• Description: A Creative Commons license that bans commercial use and requires the user to release any modified works under this license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Malinowski in njegov formativni prispevek k ameriški folkloristiki

Abstract

Bronisław Malinowski (1884–1942) je bil osrednjega pomena pri razvoju teorije funkcionalizma v antropologiji. Njegova pragmatična teorija, ki je nastala na podlagi intenzivnega terenskega dela na Trobriandskih otokih, je v antropoloških krogih spodbudila mnogo razprav. Manj znan pa je vpliv, ki ga je Malinowski imel na razvoj sodobnih študij performativne umetnosti v Združenih državah med folkloristi. Ta raziskovalni zapis se osredotoča na njegovo pisanje o jeziku mita in magije, vidikih njegovega dela, ki so v sedemdesetih letih prejšnjega stoletja najbolj pritegnili ameriške raziskovalce performansa.

• Keywords: antropologija religije, folkloristika, sociolingvistika, filozofija, jezik, performans, magija, mit, kontekst, besedilo, slv