“Russian Folklore”

By

Shahzad Dastgir Nousherwani

Sequence

• What is Folklore?• Russian Folklore as “National Character”• Slavic mythology• ‘Bylina’• Fairy Tales• Traditional Russian Music• Folklore in the USSR• ‘Barynya’ – video• Q&A

2

What is Folklore?

• ‘Lore’– A body of traditions and

knowledge

– A virtual cumulative orally transmitted archive

– Continuum with Mythology

• ‘Folk’– Commoners/Plebians

– Popular as opposed to aristocratic

• Legends, Music, Fairy Tales, Oral History etc.

3

Russian Folklore as ‘National Character’

• Slavic peasants at the crossroads

– Christianity, Mongols, The Two Ivans, Modernity

• National Character

– Big Nature

– Kind Soul

– Collectivism

4

Slavic Mythology

• Eclecticism

– Old pagan mythology and Christianity

– ‘dvoeverie’

• Christianity as ‘reconstruction’, not ‘replacement’

– ‘Perun’ becomes ‘St. Elijah – the Thunderer’

– ‘Jare’ and ‘Ivanje’ become Christian holidays

5

‘Bylina’

• Traditional East Slavic epic narrative poem

• ‘What was’ – mixing fact with fiction

• Performed pieces

• Common themes– ‘Bogatyrs’ – knights errants

– Birth/Childhood of a hero

– Battling Monsters/Sorcerers

– Triumph of good over evil

6

Fairy Tales 1/2

• Some are ‘bylina-like’

– Valor of Medieval Russian heroic warriors

– Worship of Strength and Power

– Typical Characters:• Alyosha Popovich

• Dobrynya Nikitich

• Ilya Muromets

7

Fairy Tales 2/2

• Stories with female leads– Baba Yaga

• Supernatural and ugly witch

• Steals and eats people, especially young naughty children

– Vasilisa the Beautiful

– Vasilisa the Wise

• ‘Ivan’ stories – The ‘fool’ and the ‘Prince’

8

Gusli

Traditional Russian Music

9

Gudok

Traditional Russian Music

10

Treschotka

Traditional Russian Music

11

Buben

Traditional Russian Music

12

Folklore in the USSR

• Repression

– Fantastical ‘bourgeois nonsense’

• Gorky and Sukulov’s arguments

– Self-discovery leading to ‘belonging’

– Archetypical working class

• Reconstructed folklore as propaganda

• Abandoned quickly after Stalin’s death

– Pseudo-folklore

13

Q&A