Timothy R. Tangherlini
(Professor)
Royce Hall 332A. Tel.: (310) 825-7611. Fax: (310) 825-9754. tango@humnet.ucla.edu
After college (AB in Folklore and Mythology) and graduate school (PhD in Scandinavian Languages and Literatures), I began my academic career in the Scandinavian Section at UCLA. My main areas of Scandinavian research are folklore, modern literature, film and Old Norse literature. My main Scandinavian language is Danish. Much of my research has focused on the study of storytelling in late nineteenth and early twentieth century rural communities in Denmark. I have considered the role witchcraft accusations play in these communities, as well as explored aspects of legends about the Black Death. I have also tried to answer the question, "When ghosts appear in the neighborhood, who ya' gonna call?" Indeed, my first book, Interpreting Legend, provides a methodology for the study of storytelling in small communities. I used much of this approach in my recent study of storytelling among paramedics, Talking Trauma, a consideration of storytelling in a contemporary American city. I have held appointments at the University of Copenhagen, where I directed the folklore program, and at Harvard University. Because of my work in Korean folklore and popular culture, my UCLA appointment was officially shared with the East Asian Languages and Literatures Department in 1998. I recently completed a documentary on punk rock in South Korea.
While not selflessly slaving away to make my courses the most fulfilling of all possible experiences for my students, or engrossed in my exciting (albeit incredibly dangerous) research--dangerous largely because of the chemicals needed to properly analyze a text in my newly minted “decomposition" school of textual criticism--or engaging the challenging administrative tasks that are among the most rewarding aspects of the professorial enterprise, I can be found practicing my skeet shooting in the deserts east of the city. I also enjoy travel; I have visited New Jersey, Maryland and even once made it to Delaware. When not shooting or traveling, I engage my other passion--composing baroque sonatas for harpsichord and flugelhorn. In the evenings, I volunteer my spare time at a pancake cooperative in Agoura Hills and on the weekends, my wife and I, if not teaching neighborhood children how to make batik, are usually tending our clam beds in the waters north of Malibu.
Selected Publications:
Books- Nationalism and
the Construction of Korean Identity. Co-edited with Hyung-Il
Pai. Korea Research Monograph 25. Berkeley: Institute of East
Asian Studies, University of California, 1999.
- Talking Trauma.
Paramedics and Their Stories. Jackson, MS: University Press
of Mississippi, 1998.
- Interpreting Legend. Danish Storytellers and Their Repertoires. Milman Parry Studies in Oral Tradition. New York: Garland Publishing, 1994.
- "Ghost in the Machine: Supernatural Threat and the State in Lars von Trier's Riget." Scandinavian Studies.
- "Chisin Palpki, P'ungmul, Christian Surfers and 'Slamming a ride': Folklore and the Negotiation of Korean American Identity in Los Angeles." Acta Koreana.
- "Remapping Koreatown: Folklore, Narrative and the Los Angeles Riots." In Built L.A. Folklore and Place in Los Angeles. Edited by Timothy R. Tangherlini. Special Issue. Western Folklore 58(1999), 149-173.
Courses
- Scandinavian 50: Introduction to Scandinavian Literature
- Scandinavian 141: Backgrounds of Scandinavian Literature
- Scandinavian 143: 20th Century Scandinavian Literature
- Scandinavian C180: Literature and Scandinavian Society
- Scandinavian C182: Theory of the Scandinavian Novel
- Scandinavian 187: Scandinavian Film
- Scandinavian C188: Scandinavian Folk Narrative