Thomas A. DuBois
Thomas A. DuBois Professor Tom DuBois joined the faculty at the University
of Wisconsin, Madison in 2000 and now leads the department's Area Studies
Program. He holds a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from the University
of Pennsylvania and teaches, writes, and researches on a variety of
Nordic topics, particularly: particularly:
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
University of Pennsylvania, Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife, 1990
research and study, Department of Folklore, University of Helsinki 1983-85;
1987-88
Cornell University, AB mcl in English, 1983
TEACHING
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Department of Scandinavian Studies, 2000-
University of Washington, Seattle
Departments of Scandinavian Studies and Comparative Literature, 1990-2000.
Additional teaching at:
University of Umeå, Sweden
Institutionen för Samiska (1996, 2001)
Harvard University
Program in Folklore and Mythology and Department of Germanic Languages
and Literatures (1999)
University of Helsinki, Finland
Department of Folklore and Programme in North American Studies (1988,
1994)
University of Oslo, Norway
International Summer School (1993)
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Books:
(with Leea Virtanen) Finnish Folklore. Helsinki: Finnish Literature
Society, 2000. 297 pages. To see cover, go to amazon.com [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/9517179383/qid=997302361/sr=1-2/ref=sc_b_2/103-9477282-5233449]
Nordic Religions in the Viking Age. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press, 1999. 271 pages. To see cover go to amazon.com [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0812217144/qid=997302361/sr=1-1/ref=sc_b_1/103-9477282-5233449]
Finnish Folk Poetry and the Kalevala. New Perspectives in Folklore
1. Publications of the American Folklore Society. New York: Garland
Press, 1995. 317 pages.
Articles:
"Narrative Expectations and the Sampo Song." Accepted for
publication, Scandinavian Studies, forthcoming.
"Interpreting Lyric Meaning in Irish Tradition: Love and Death
in the Shadow of Tralee" Accepted for publication, Oral Tradition,
forthcoming.
"Narrators in Two Epics: The Narrator's Voice in Kalevala and
Kalevipoeg" Oral Tradition 15 no. 1 (March 2000): 126-144.
"'That Strain Again!', or, Twelfth Night, a Folkloristic Approach"
Arv 56 (2000): 35-56.
"Folklore, Boundaries and Audience in The Pathfinder." In
Sami Folkloristics. Ed. Juha Pentikäinen. Turku: NIF, 2000. Pp.
255-274.
"Lönnrot and Värttinä: (Re)presenting Oral Tradition
to a Willing Audience." Journal of Finnish Studies 1 no. 2 (1997):
27-36.
"Continuities Through Change: The Ritual Life of Finnish Women
Before and After Christianity." Journal of Finnish Studies 1 no.
1 (1997): 5-24.
"The Kalevala Received: From Printed Text to Oral Performance"
Oral Tradition 11 no.2 (1996): 270-300.
"Seidr, Sagas, and Saami: The Nature and Significance of Religious
Exchange in the Viking Age." Northern Peoples, Southern States:
Maintaining Ethnicities in the Circumpolar World. Ed. Robert Wheelersburg.
CERUM Northern Studies 1. Umeå: CERUM, 1996. Pp. 43-66.
"Native Hermeneutics: Traditional Means of Interpreting Lyric
Songs in Northern Europe." Journal of American Folklore. 109 no.
433 (1996): 1-32.
COURSES TAUGHT AY 2001-2
Autumn Semester
Scand 301 Intensive Finnish I. 7 cr.
Meets: MTWTh 11:00, Van Hise 399
Lab meets: MTW 12:05, Van Hise 250 and Th 12:05, Van Hise 483
Scand 429 Mythology of Scandinavia. 4 cr (L-A).
Meets: T Th 1:00-2:15 VanVleck B-231
Spring Semester
Scand 302 Intensive Finnish II. 7 cr.
Meets: MTWTh 11:00
Lab: MTWTh 12:05
Scand XXX Fundamentals of Bibliography and Research. 3 cr.
Meets: T 3:30-5:30, Van Hise 1351
Relig. Stu. 695 Research Colloquium. 1 cr.
Meets: M 2:25
COURSES TAUGHT AY 2000-1
Autumn Semester
Scand 429 Mythology of Scandinavia. 4 cr.
Scand 444 Kalevala and Finnish Folk-Lore. 4 cr.
Spring Semester
Scand 520 sec. 2 Special Topic: Scandinavian Children's Literature
Scand 520 sec. 3 Special Topic: Sámi Studies
Summer Term
Folk 590 Ethnic Folklore of Wisconsin
University Forum Series.
Details of research areas....
Finnish folklore and literature
My research in this area has focused on Karelian and Ingrian song tradition
as the ways in which Elias Lönnrot adapted these in his epic Kalevala.
I am also interested in Finnish literature, as well as the interconnections
between literature, folklore, and popular culture in Finland. I have
written on Ilmari Kianto and regularly review new Finnish or Swedish-Finnish
literature for World Literature Today.
(with Leea Virtanen) Finnish Folklore. Helsinki: Finnish Literature
Society, 2000. 297 pages. To see cover, go to amazon.com [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/9517179383/qid=997302361/sr=1-2/ref=sc_b_2/103-9477282-5233449]
Finnish Folk Poetry and the Kalevala. New Perspectives in Folklore
1. Publications of the American Folklore Society. New York: Garland
Press, 1995. 317 pages.
"Narrative Expectations and the Sampo Song." Accepted for
publication, Scandinavian Studies, forthcoming.
"Narrators in Two Epics: The Narrator's Voice in Kalevala and
Kalevipoeg" Oral Tradition 15 no. 1 (March 2000): 126-144.
"Lönnrot and Värttinä: (Re)presenting Oral Tradition
to a Willing Audience." Journal of Finnish Studies 1 no. 2 (1997):
27-36.
"The Kalevala Received: From Printed Text to Oral Performance"
Oral Tradition 11 no.2 (1996): 270-300.
"An Ethnopoetic Approach to Finnish Folk Poetry: Arhippa Perttunen's
Nativity." In Songs Beyond the Kalevala: Transformations of Oral
Poetry. Ed. Anna-Leena Siikala and Sinikka Vakimo. Studia Fennica Folkloristica
2. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1994. Pp. 138-179.
"From Maria to Marjatta: The Transformation of an Oral Poem in
Elias Lönnrot's Kalevala." Oral Tradition 8 no. 2 (1993):
247-288.
"A Farmwife's Lot: The Politics of Portrayal in Ilmari Kianto's
Punainen viiva and Ryysyrannan Jooseppi." Scandinavian Studies
65 no. 4 (Fall 1993): 521-538.
If you are interested in learning about Finnish culture, literature,
and folklore, consider taking Finnish language! I am teaching an intensive
Finnish course this year: Tervetuloa! (Welcome!).
Scand 301 Intensive Finnish I. 7 cr.
Meets: MTWTh 11:00, Van Hise 399
Lab meets: MTW 12:05, Van Hise 250 and Th 12:05, Van Hise 483
If you are interested in these topics, please see my Autumn course:
Scand 444 Kalevala and Finnish Folk-Lore.
Sámi culture
My research in this area focuses on traditional and contemporary cultural
expressions of Sámi people in the Nordic countries, particularly
in the Northern Sámi language. I am interested in continuities
of tradition among Sámi people and the significance of an indigenous
worldview in Sámi culture and activism. I have been fortunate
to teach at the Department of Sámi Studies at the University
of Umeå.
"Folklore, Boundaries and Audience in The Pathfinder." In
Sami Folkloristics. Ed. Juha Pentikäinen. Turku: NIF, 2000. Pp.
255-274.
"Seidr, Sagas, and Saami: The Nature and Significance of Religious
Exchange in the Viking Age." Northern Peoples, Southern States:
Maintaining Ethnicities in the Circumpolar World. Ed. Robert Wheelersburg.
CERUM Northern Studies 1. Umeå: CERUM, 1996. Pp. 43-66.
"Insider and Outsider: An Inari Saami Case." Scandinavian
Studies 67 no. 1 (Winter 1995): 63-77.
"Sámi Culture Meets the World: A Review Essay." Scandinavian
Studies 70 no. 2 (1998): 263-266.
Viking Age Religion
I research the interrelations between various Nordic religions during
the Viking Age, defined broadly to include the ninth through thirteen
centuries. My particular research interest lies in investigating the
ways in which personal and communal identities became expressed through
the adoption or adaptation of religious traditions, including Christianity.
I serve as a member of the University of Wisconsin's Program in Religious
Studies, and will teach the program's Research Colloquium course for
majors (Relig. Stu. 695) in the
Spring semester.
Nordic Religions in the Viking Age. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press, 1999. 271 pages.
"Continuities Through Change: The Ritual Life of Finnish Women
Before and After Christianity." Journal of Finnish Studies 1 no.
1 (1997): 5-24.
"Seidr, Sagas, and Saami: The Nature and Significance of Religious
Exchange in the Viking Age." Northern Peoples, Southern States:
Maintaining Ethnicities in the Circumpolar World. Ed. Robert Wheelersburg.
CERUM Northern Studies 1. Umeå: CERUM, 1996. Pp. 43-66.
If you are interested in Nordic Viking Age religions, please see my
Autumn course:
Scand 429 Mythology of Scandinavia
Lyric Songs in Northern Europe
With the assistance of a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for the academic
year 1997-98, I began work on a research project entitled "Aesthetics
and Meaning of the Northern European Lyric." Lyric songs are ones
which focus on a feeling, situation, or persona rather than relate an
explicit narrative plot. They have been important in both religious
and secular music since the Middle Ages, and are often (but not exclusively)
associated with women's culture . I am particularly interested in the
ways in which communities of singers
and audiences encode interpretive strategies for songs which often appear
cryptic to outsiders. An examination of the ways in which people understand
lyric songs, I believe, can tell us a great deal about the complexities
of interpretive (or hermeneutic) traditions within cultures.
"Interpreting Lyric Meaning in Irish Tradition: Love and Death
in the Shadow of Tralee" Accepted for publication, Oral Tradition,
forthcoming.
"'That Strain Again!', or, Twelfth Night, a Folkloristic Approach"
Arv 56 (2000): 35-56.
"The Kalevala Received: From Printed Text to Oral Performance"
Oral Tradition 11 no.2 (1996): 270-300.
"Native Hermeneutics: Traditional Means of Interpreting Lyric
Songs in Northern Europe." Journal of American
Folklore. 109 no. 433 (1996): 1-32.
