Papers by Sibelan Forrester
Thompson Bradley taught Russian language and literature at Swarthmore College from 1962 to 2001. ... more Thompson Bradley taught Russian language and literature at Swarthmore College from 1962 to 2001. He has had a tremendous and continuing influence on colleagues, friends, students, and comrades in political organizing and action. This Festschrift honors his ...
Folklorica, Apr 14, 2016
The noviny-Russian Soviet epic poems composed in traditional bylina style but devoted to the expl... more The noviny-Russian Soviet epic poems composed in traditional bylina style but devoted to the exploits of more recent heroes such as Lenin, Stalin or Chapaev-are familiar to every serious student of modern Russian folklore, yet most of us know very little about them. Margaret Ziolkowski's Soviet Heroic Poetry in Context makes its main question clear with its subtitle: are these works folklore or fakelore (borrowing Richard M. Dorson's term, which shows that Western democracies have had as much manufactured "folk" material as any socialist country)? The response to the question, in sum, is that the noviny are both, and that their context is not at all simple, or merely limited to the Soviet Union in the second quarter of the 20th century. No one can judge the noviny either as aesthetic objects or as cultural phenomena without knowing that context. Ziolkowski sets up the question of the collector or editor's role in the establishment of national folklore canons in a chapter focusing on James Macpherson (Ossian), the Grimm brothers, Vuk Karadžić, and Elias Lönnrot (the Kalevala) and their roles in establishing national schools of folklore collection and accepted practices of folklore collection. The context immediately emerges as complex, following debates over the authenticity of works like Macpherson's Ossian and their impact in Europe (through translations and shifting literary fashion from Neoclassicism to Sentimentalism and then Romanticism, and in new projects of collection elsewhere). Ziolkowski notes that accusations of fraud in Macpherson often reflect political tensions between England and Scotland. Despite subsequent scholarship pointing out the editorial tendencies of Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, their collected tales still enjoy great authority as a model of authenticity, through their successful "creation of the myth of an unmediated illiterate peasantry serving as a direct source for the Grimms' collection" (p. 13). Karadžić edited the work he collected as well and was criticized for appropriating materials from singers who were not Serbs. Elias Lönnrot's work with the Kalevala provoked Swedish and Russian objections, as well as comparisons to Macpherson. "The very existence and continued celebration of Kalevala Day bear witness to the powerful link between politics and folklore" (p. 30). The second chapter discusses oral composition and the research of Milman Parry and Albert Lord, as well as Russian folklorists and other folklorists and their theories of the oral compositional process. Ziolkowski brings in translation of classical epic poems and evidence of folklorists' growing distrust of the pernicious influence of literacy on oral performers. Here too even a reader who knows the major works in folklore studies will begin to see new angles. Chapter 3 looks in more detail into the work of Rybnikov, Hilferding, and other pre-Soviet collectors. Ziolkowski points out interesting and indicative details in their collections of epic songs, and she draws out the implications for their attitudes toward (and at times intervention in) the material. The fourth chapter addresses the making of the noviny by both singers and their literate assistants or directors. Many of the folklorists she cites here are important in other
Slavic and East European Journal, 1997
Slavic Review, 2005
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, availab... more Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
Translation Review, Sep 1, 1998
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Papers by Sibelan Forrester