Folklore and Ethnology in the Soviet Western Borderlands: Socialist in Form, National in Content: Studies in Folklore and Ethnology: Traditions, Practices, and Identities Pavlo Artymyshyn Lexington Books

Folklore and Ethnology in the Soviet Western Borderlands

Socialist in Form, National in Content

Folklore and Ethnology in the Soviet Western Borderlands

Socialist in Form, National in Content

Description

Thirteen international scholars assess the profound impact of Soviet-era movements to study, apply, and perform folklore as a priority in socialist policy-formation and culture-building. Representing generations who lived through and after Soviet occupation, they reflect on the consequences of state-supported promotion of folk arts in a region called the Western Borderlands that include Baltic countries, Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, Belarus, Romania, and Hungary. In their incisive analyses, authors present original archival materials as well as ethnographic data to understand colonialist support for bottom-up folklore movements and resistance to them. Capping the volume is a timely consideration of Soviet orchestration of folkloristic work on present developments in conflicts of Russia with its neighbors and alignments with Western folkloristics and ethnology.

Introduction: The Analytics of 'Socialist in Form, National in Content' in the Soviet Western Borderlands
Toms Kencis

Part I. An Inherent Paradox: National Form and Socialist Content
Chapter 1. Folklore and Nationalism in the Soviet Western Borderlands
Toms Kencis
Chapter 2. Bringing the Folk Community into the Future: On the Socialist Content of Communist Folkloristics
Joseph Grim Feinberg
Chapter 3. The Lithuanian Folklore Movement and Academe: Transforming Rural Tradition
Auste Nakiene

Part II. Multivocal Socialism: Agents and Agendas
Chapter 4. Being in Between: Laine Mesikäpp and Staged Practices of Estonian Traditional Songs
Janika Oras
Chapter 5. Ideological Tuning of Latvian Folk Ornament
Digne Udre
Chapter 6. The Dievturi Movement under the Soviet Regime
Gatis Ozolinš

Part III. Folk and the People: Education and Control
Chapter 7. On Self-Folklorization: Folk Art in Late Socialist Era Poland
Ewa Klekot
Chapter 8. Folkloristics in Moldova: Relations between Discipline and Performance
Jennifer R. Cash
Chapter 9. The Influence of Soviet Authority on the Formation of Latvian Staged Folk Dance
Elina Gailite

Part IV. Post-war Academia: Sovietization of the Discipline
Chapter 10 New Songs for a New Life: Soviet Folklore and Folkloristics in Western Ukraine
Pavlo Artymyshyn and Roman Holyk
Chapter 11. Confronting Soviet Colonialism: Folkloristics in Early Soviet Estonia and East Germany
Kaisa Langer
Chapter 12. The Search for Workers’ Folklore in Hungary
Gabriella Vámos

Afterword: Ghosts of Socialist Folkloristics in the Post-Soviet World
Simon J. Bronner
About the Contributors

Product details

Published	Dec 08 2023
Format	Hardback
Edition	1st
Extent	302
ISBN	9781666906530
Imprint	Lexington Books
Illustrations	8 b/w photos
Dimensions	9 x 6 inches
Series	Studies in Folklore and Ethnology: Traditions, Practices, and Identities
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing

Anthology Editor

Toms Kencis

Anthology Editor

Simon J. Bronner

Anthology Editor

Elo-Hanna Seljamaa

Contributor

Pavlo Artymyshyn

Contributor

Simon J. Bronner

Contributor

Jennifer R. Cash

Contributor

Toms Kencis

Contributor

Ewa Klekot

Contributor

Elina Gailite

Contributor

Joseph Grim Feinberg

Contributor

Roman Holyk

Contributor

Kaisa Langer

Contributor

Auste Nakiene

Contributor

Janika Oras

Contributor

Gatis Ozolinš

Contributor

Digne Udre

Contributor

Gabriella Vámos

This book is a comprehensive introduction to the history of folkloristics and ethnology in Europe behind the Iron Curtain – on the Western fringes of the Communist empire, once ruled from Moscow. It offers a close and critical analysis of research traditions in the countries, ranging from the Baltic states to Central Europe and Ukraine – all affected by Marxist-Leninist ideology. As a work on folklore, politics, and nationalism, on resilience and submissiveness, it is also a systematic study of Soviet colonialism and a critical reflection of its legacies today.

Ülo Valk, University of Tartu
This wonderful book shows you what was hidden behind the Soviet Iron Curtain – a world not easy to fathom in its complexity of intention, control, and resistance. The editors and contributing authors make it not only fathomable but challenge a homogenous perception by engaging with the diversity of the phenomenon. A must-read as the explorations also reflect on contemporary reality.

Sadhana Naithani, author of Folklore in Baltic History: Resistance and Resurgence