Abstract
The study focuses on a brief outline of the history and disciplinary identity of North American folklore studies (folkloristics, folklore) with an emphasis on the field of verbal culture. Major research themes, research schools, and personalities are presented, as well as the history of the institutionalization of the field at the U.S. universities after World War II After a brief introduction to the origins, when North American folklore studies did not differ significantly from British and Continental scholarship, its development during interwar period and especially in the 1960s and 1970s, when its emancipation took place, mainly because of unique American emphasis on study of folklore performance, is described.
Critical overview text thus presents basic contours of this specific academic field, practiced mainly in the U.S.A and Canada, which in many aspects represents a unique scientific discipline with close ties to international folklore studies, European ethnology, and anthropological fields in general.