April 1, 2005
Farewell, Dr. Dundes
On Wednesday, the world lost one of the its most prolific scholars and in my opinion and that of many of my fellow Cal alumni, one of its Great Teachers. Dr. Alan Dundes, the creator of U.C. Berkeley's Folklore department and venerable Folklore Archive, died at age 70 of a heart attack after collapsing in a class.
I was extremely fortunate to have studied with Dr. Dundes, and to have spent a semester working in the archive. What Dr. Dundes amassed in that archive, not to mention his own body of writing, was nothing short of amazing. Every single page of jokes, folktales, riddles, and songs submitted by students in Dundes' 40-plus years of classes is classified according to an extremely intricate system that makes it possible for people to research virtually any subject, no matter how specific or bizarre. One of my early interactions with my now-husband was when he came in to the archives to research jokes and riddles about Texans being "full of shit", for a paper he was writing for Dundes' American Folklore class. We pulled folders upon folders of pertinent material--and this was pre-Bush Administration!
Dundes' impact on his students could be seen every day he was teaching, in a huge auditorium in Evans Hall that was always full. In the early days of the semester, people would fill even the aisles. I did not miss one session, and I don't think many of my classmates did, either. Truth be told, it was one of the most rigorous classes in the Anthropology department, requiring hundreds of pages of reading and hours of research. But we were all electrified by Dundes' teaching and his passion.
He will be greatly, greatly missed.
5 comments
I am so sad to hear about Dr. Dundes. I took that folklore 101 class from him at Berkeley eons ago, and I LOVED it. I loved him. I actually thought about going to grad school in folklore because of him. He will be missed.
No doubt at all he was a great (and entertaining) guy and a great mind and will be missed. Alas, my one and only exposure to him at Cal was when he guest-lectured in an anthro class I was taking, and spent most of the time setting forth his theory about the homosexual subtext of American football. It started out interesting, but before long, he was way, way, WAY off the deep end, and students male and female were groaning and rolling their eyes. Hell, even his own wife couldn't stand this particular pet rant. Perhaps the lecture was meant to be indicative of his approach to societal rituals and less an actual explanation of "what's really going on" in football. But it didn't come across that way, and the overwhelming vibe I got was one of an academic not being able to see the forest for the trees.
Still, I bet there's not much his wife--of 48 years--wouldn't give now to hear that "particular pet rant" once more.
Having heard that "pet rant" twice, and having spoken to him about it, what I like most about it, is why he likes to tell it. Simply put, it rubs people the wrong way. For him it is an exercise in Freudianism, and pretty frikkin funny. Because if you have ever taken his class, you would know just how much he loves football.
There were a lot of things that he took too far - I can't disagree with that - but what always amazed me is regardless of how off the deep end he seemed to take things, there always appeared to be a "kernel of truth" to everything he said.
I love that your blog has become a forum for intellectual banter. What I don't understand is why people don't post their name with their comment. Am I missing some type of blog etiquette here?