What does it mean to say that postmodern interest in first level folklore is no longer based on the grand themes of humanism, that the motivations expressed so admirably by folklorists such as Wilson (1988) are irrelevant, or to say along with Lyotard that second level criteria of competence “no longer make the grade” (1984:51)? Aside from telling us that the process of postmodernization is a story about posthumanism, it draws our attention to three related aspects of folklore of postmodern folklore. First it means that first level folklore is recast from an object of knowledge into an object of consumption; postmodern folklore is folklore commodified. Second, it means that in contrast to the modern disposition to invest oneself in folklore in order to mark a social difference, in postmodern culture one consumes folklore in order to achieve self-fulfillment.

~ Gerald E. Warshaver, “On Postmodern Folklore”

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