Fakelore (pseudo-folklore)

Fakelore, or pseudo-folklore, refers to stories that are supposedly genuine folktales but may have instead been created artificially for various purposes. Genuine folklore usually begins spontaneously among a particular group of people who create and tell it for entertainment or educational purposes. A folktale contains important insights into the culture that created it and persists through generations of retellings. Fakelore, on the other hand, may be made for economic, social, or artistic reasons, and may be deliberately misleading.

Background

Folklore refers to stories that people have created and retold over generations. These stories may be about any topic and may feature far-flung imaginative elements such as giants, monsters, and talking animals. Generally, folklore contains elements that reflect the lives, beliefs, and cultures of the people who generate it. Often, a folktale contains references, symbols, or themes immediately familiar to the originating group, even if these ideas may seem strange or even disturbing to outsiders.

Sometimes, folklore develops as a simple means of entertainment. People invent stories to tell their friends and families for fun. The stories may be full of daring adventures or humorous elements. Other times, folklore teaches important lessons about life. Some stories may include easily identifiable or even explicitly stated moral messages, while others take a subtler approach to demonstrating ethical ideas through character actions and their results. Regardless of whether a folklore tale existed for entertainment or education, it holds significant value because of what it reveals about the people who created it.

Many researchers have studied folklore, of both the distant and recent past, to determine what it can teach about the history, behavior, and beliefs of the people who created it. In many cases, these insights can help others learn about a culture or show how a culture developed certain beliefs or practices. Sometimes, folklore provides the only clues into cultures that may have disappeared long ago, leaving little other evidence of their lives.

Many people consider folklore to be confined to old stories, while others point out that the processes that create folklore are still active and continue into the modern era. New developments, ideas, beliefs, and other factors constantly inspire the imagination and lead to new stories. Some researchers count jokes, internet memes, visual art, and various behaviors as modern forms of folklore or supporting contributions to folklore.

Overview

Many nations and cultures have rich folkloric traditions that developed hundreds of years ago. Most of this folklore was transmitted orally, meaning no written copies existed. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, experts began to research and record folklore. By transcribing these stories, they could better preserve them, as well as share them with people far from the originating culture. The study of folklore bloomed and played a role in the emerging fields of literary study, sociology, cultural anthropology, and more.

By the middle of the twentieth century, folklorists, or researchers of folklore, had catalogued thousands of items of folklore. In this process, they began to identify instances in which a story presumed to be folklore did not necessarily ring true. People might have presented this tale as having been developed spontaneously years ago and passed down by a culture that appreciated its message. However, critical folklorists might examine the story in question and the circumstances surrounding it and determine that it does not fit the criteria for true folklore.

Folklorists such as Richard M. Dorson began using the term fakelore to differentiate these questionable tales from verifiable instances of folklore. The study of fakelore began to run parallel to the study of folklore, with academics arguing the merit or authenticity of many stories once presumed to be folkloric. During these discussions, researchers of fakelore identified many instances in which people may have—intentionally or unintentionally—generated fakelore stories for a variety of purposes.

People might be compelled to create fakelore for a variety of economic reasons. For example, companies might seek to associate their products with newly made tales that sound like genuine folklore to draw consumer interest or add legitimacy to a product. Marketers might also appropriate true folklore and bend it in various ways to suit their purpose, thus creating a form of fakelore. Musicians, such as folk singers, might create stories or tunes that replicate true folklore, but are really just fakelore. This may be done for artistic or entertainment reasons but may also be done to mislead audiences or generate stronger record sales.

Social reasons might also compel people to create fakelore. Children’s book authors may be prone to creating fakelore, especially if they are trying to write about specific ethnic groups. They may have good intentions, such as educating readers about the group or fostering respect for the group. They may also seek to give richer literary backing to a group that is lacking in real, recorded folklore. However, if an author does this without explaining that the story is purely invented, the author is contributing to fakelore.

In other situations, a town or region might create fakelore to make their area seem more interesting and appealing, likely with the intention of promoting tourism. An entire country might engage in this sort of behavior as well. In many instances, people create images and ideas about “Golden Eras” of the past that are patently inaccurate but still hold appeal for sentimental reasons. Such widespread fakelore may be used to stir up nationalism or assert control over others. For instance, folklorists have speculated that some popular American stories about giant men who work ceaselessly and perform astonishing deeds may have been invented or propagated by employers wanting to make selfless, unquestioning labor seem like a wonderful virtue.

One major example of national fakelore has been termed “Merry England.” This was a wide range of depictions of England in the 1500s and 1600s that suggest the country was a near-utopia of rolling fields, happy people, easy living, and ongoing prosperity. Real historical studies point out that this is a deeply skewed vision of that period, but the idea of Merry England proved highly popular. It led to people in later centuries seeing England as a source of happy nostalgia, even if that view was of a time long before they were born.

Bibliography

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