The Folklorist Who Named Fakelore
Richard Dorson believed folklore needed both an archive and a boundary.
He collected regional traditions, trained generations of scholars, and wrote histories that gave American folklore study an institutional past. He also attacked popular inventions marketed as authentic tradition.
For that problem he supplied a durable word: fakelore.
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Full name | Richard Mercer Dorson |
| Lived | 1916–1981 |
| Profession | Folklorist, historian, and professor |
| Academic home | Indiana University |
| Known for | American folklore history and the term fakelore |
| Archive connection | Authenticity, commercial retelling, regional collection, and disciplinary history |
Who Was Richard Dorson?
Richard Dorson was an American folklorist and historian who directed the Folklore Institute at Indiana University. He helped make Bloomington an international center of folklore research.[1]
His fieldwork and writing ranged across the United States, from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to African American and immigrant traditions.
What Is Fakelore?
Dorson used fakelore for invented or heavily manufactured material presented as genuine folk tradition. His most famous target was the literary expansion of Paul Bunyan by commercial writers and advertisers.[2]
The term exposed real problems of false provenance and corporate appropriation. Critics also note that tradition is always changing, and that a commercially circulated story can enter genuine popular use.
Building Folklore History
Dorson documented collectors, institutions, debates, and methods in books such as American Folklore and Folklore and Folklife.
He insisted that a text should be connected to teller, community, setting, and collection history. A colorful story without documentation was not enough.
Why Richard Dorson Still Matters
Digital culture has made the fakelore problem newly urgent. Invented “ancient legends” can acquire thousands of repetitions before anyone asks where they began.
Dorson’s boundary was sometimes too rigid, but his demand for provenance remains essential: who first made this claim, and what evidence connects it to tradition?
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Richard Dorson a folklorist?
Yes. He was one of the most influential American folklorists and a major builder of folklore studies at Indiana University.
What does fakelore mean?
It means invented or commercially reshaped material presented as authentic traditional folklore.
Did Dorson collect folklore?
Yes. He conducted regional fieldwork and edited major collections as well as writing disciplinary history.
Why is fakelore controversial?
Because invented material can later circulate traditionally, making the boundary between artificial creation and living folklore less stable than the term suggests.
Related Pages
Sources and Further Reading
- Indiana University. “Richard M. Dorson.”
- Richard M. Dorson. Folklore and Fakelore. Harvard University Press, 1976.
- Richard M. Dorson, ed. Folklore and Folklife. University of Chicago Press.
- American Folklore Society.
Last reviewed: September 2026.