Russian folklore in a multicultiral world

The article discusses the methodological questions of folklore studies predominantly: traditional studies of rural folklore, modern interpretation of traditional material and new studies of new folklore material. Most of the texts are provided by Tver University local folklore studies group. The research of oral folk art is shifting towards the elucidation of contemporary creative processes among the people, and the related topic of authenticity, to research in the field of urban folklore, the problems of personal narrative and oral history, modern folklore (including Internet folklore), "Anti-folklore" and "post-folklore". Verbal folklore is gradually emancipated from the ritual-mythological context and begins to develop according to the laws of literature, which leads to the formation of the genre space of verbal folklore. Post-folklore is linked with the emergence of fundamentally new (in comparison with writing) information and communication technologies. The paper sheds light upon interconnectivity of sociolinguistics and modern folklore studies.