In “Relearning Medieval Lessons: Sleeping Beauty and the Time of Folklore,” Randy Schiff turns to the unusually rich and structurally central temporality of Sleeping Beauty tales to explore time’s role in folklore more generally. Examining medieval analogues that highlight time’s subjectivity while delivering lessons about social hierarchy and gender inequality, Schiff shows how medieval ethical lessons haunt modern Sleeping Beauty stories.

In “Putting the Salmon of Knowledge in the Freezer: Historical Time through the Folk Narratives of the Irish Literary Revival,” Lindsay McClure explores the role of time in Irish folklore, specifically the tension between folklore’s ability to preserve in spite of or against time, even as folklore tends to be seen as always on the verge of loss or total collapse. Specifically focusing on the folklore collection efforts of the Irish Literary Revival during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, McClure’s presentation will unpack the particular richness of folklore during major transitional periods of national culture.

In “Once Upon A Time in Russia.... Exploring the Multifaceted Concept of Time in Russian Folklore,” Irina Strout explores the fluid concept of time and its meaning for the East Slavs in the context of selected Russian fairy tales and folklore. Through compressing or making time dense, as well as through the reverse activities of prolonging or lingering with time, Russian fairy tales have been a rich source of education, a mode of communication, and a means of enforcing social rules and cultural traditions.

In “Transcending Time: Hero Epics as Native History in Northeast China,” Loretta Kim critiques the assumption in modern China that historical narratives that do not conform to measures of “state time” are literary but not properly historical. Analyzing “native time” as expressed in three pieces of “folk literature” originating in non-Han groups of China’s northeastern region, this study argues that more than one kind of time can justify the historicity of the scarce, and thus more precious, evidence found in these sources.

The diversity of the subjects in these papers is also reinforced by the panel's membership. The four members are from three institutions in the United States and one outside the United States. The scholarship of all four members also spans four distinct regions of the world, and the panel will showcase this diversity in source bases and methodologies, while nevertheless contributing to the shared theme by highlighting several common themes in the folklore of various cultures.

The panel will be held in a 75-minute session, with the four presentations lasting 10-12 minutes each, followed by at least 15-20 minutes of audience interaction through questions and responses. The presentations will be concise and focus on the common interests reflected in the four studies to highlight the comparative approaches taken in this panel. Presenters will also interweave their comments for fellow panelists into the general discussion with the audience.