Alan Dundes
American folklorist (1934-2005) · United States · On the map · Academics · Died at 70
Alan Dundes was an American folklorist whose four-decade tenure at the University of California, Berkeley helped define folkloristics as an academic discipline.
Alan Dundes is read about 31 times a day, in 18 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 22 June 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 60 days, one point a day.
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About this person
Obituaries remembered him as the most renowned folklorist of his time and noted his authorship of 12 books, two dozen edited volumes, and more than 250 articles interpreting myth, proverb, and folk belief. Dundes advanced psychoanalytic and structural readings of folklore and urged colleagues to pair collection with theory in delineating the field. His willingness to probe national character and popular ritual, including a controversial 1980 address on German culture and a psychoanalytic study of American football, drew both acclaim and death threats.
