[.ca] In Search of Authenticity: The Formation of Folklore Studies (ISBN 0299155447)

Scholarly analysis.:
Professor Bendix compares and contrasts German and American folklore studies, "demonstrating how the notion of authenticity was used not only to foster national causes, but also to lay the foundations for categories of documentation and analysis within the nascent field of folklore studies". "Coming to terms with the constructed and contingent, if not deceptive, nature of authenticity is the result of cognitive reflexivity; living in a capitalistically driven, mass-mediated world means to be surrounded by the mimetic products and enactments of aesthetic reflexivity." (The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not 'score" books.)