Folklorystyka

Folklorystyka, or folklore studies, is an academic discipline that analyzes traditional beliefs, narratives, practices, and material culture of communities. It seeks to understand how folklore originates, evolves, and functions within social life, and how it contributes to identity, memory, and social cohesion across generations and regions. The field covers a broad range of expressions, from spoken and sung folklore to rituals, crafts, dress, and everyday objects, including urban legends and digital folklore.

Its sources include oral literature such as folktales, legends, myths, proverbs, and anecdotes; songs and music; ritual practices and ceremonies; and material culture like artifacts and heirlooms. Researchers gather, document, and interpret these elements through fieldwork, ethnography, archives, and textual analysis, often combining linguistic, historical, and literary approaches. Comparative methods allow cross-cultural motif and tale-type analysis, while performance-centered perspectives highlight how folklore is produced in real time. Ethical considerations and collaboration with communities are emphasized, especially in contemporary or living traditions.

Folklorystyka intersects with anthropology, philology, literary studies, and cultural studies. It remains attentive to change, including the impact of modernization, media, and globalization on traditional forms, and to digital folklore. In Poland, a long-standing tradition of collecting and studying folklore has influenced the discipline, with scholars such as Oskar Kolberg contributing substantial multi-volume works that document regional customs and songs. The field continues to document and interpret both historic and contemporary expressions as living cultural heritage.