Natalie Kononenko was Professor and Kule Chair in Ukrainian Ethnography at the University of Alberta until her retirement in 2019. Earlier she taught at the University of Virginia where she also held administrative positions. Kononenko conducted fieldwork in Canada, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Turkey. Her publications include Slavic Folklore: A Handbook, Ukrainian Minstrels: And the Blind Shall Sing, and Ukrainian Epic and Historical Song: Folklore in Context, both of which won awards. Kononenko’s interests extend beyond folklore to digital ethnographic data management.

Novoselytsia is a village in the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine that is situated near the border with the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. The latter are regions that belonged to Poland before World War II, and the inhabitants of Novoselytsia refer to them as "Poland," or lands across the border, even now. They also mention a long tradition of going to "Poland" to seek help from wise people in detecting witches, finding stolen goods, and other tasks. A higher concentration of magic on the other side of the historical state border seems to be assumed in the culture of Novoselytsia, as well as in some other Carpathian cultures. This paper examines the attitudes of speakers to people across the historical border, as such attitudes are revealed in stories about supernatural abilities. It focuses on the role that such attitudes play in the construction of the speakers’ own identity.

“Вни пушли в Польщу до мудрых люди”: історичный гатар и маґія в повідках з карпаторусинського села

Єлена Будовська

Новоселиця – село в Закарпатськуй области Украины, котроє ся находить недалеко од гатарув з Лвовськов и Иванофранковськов областями. Сесї два реґіоны, котрі были у составі Польщы ищи сперед Другов світовов войнов, а обывателї Новоселицї кличуть їх «Польщов» до теперь. Вни также споминавуть за довгу традіцію ходити в «Польщу», за помуч од «мудрых люди», котрі помагали спознати босорканю, найти краденоє итд. Булша концентрація маґії по антот бук історичного державного гатара є характернов про културу Новоселицї, як и про поєднї инші карпатські културы. В статї иде бесїда за одношеня до люди з другого бока історичного гатара, зато же такі одношеня мож увидїти в повідках за супернатуралнї можности. Статя ся фокусує на ролю, котру сесї одношеня бавлять в будованю ідентітета бесїдувучых.

Elena Boudovskaia earned her BS in Structural Linguistics from Moscow State University, and her MA and PhD in Slavic Linguistics from UCLA. Before joining the Department of Slavic Languages at Georgetown in 2011, she taught Russian at UCLA, Columbia University, and Vassar College. She also taught courses in Slavic Folklore (Vassar College), ESL (UCLA), and Beginning Ukrainian (Vassar College). Research interests include: Croatian, Ukrainian and other Slavic dialects in historical perspective; Rusyn, a minority Slavic language; Slavic folklore, traditional and contemporary.

The present essay deals with folk beliefs about the supernatural in several sketches from Notes of a Hunter (Zapiski okhotnika). Turgenev’s hunter-narrator stands at a social and cultural distance from the peasants he encounters and serves as a half-comprehending observer of their world. Yet the inclusion in the text of folklore references and actual performances to a good extent opens up their inner world. The folklore of Notes of a Hunter largely represents popular explanations for tragic events and includes mini-stories about encounters with demonic forces (bylichki), songs, and common aphorisms. The hunter-narrator does not share the beliefs of the people. Yet the misfortunes for which the folklore offers an explanation are common human happenings that may affect him as well. Turgenev’s use of folklore in Notes of a Hunter accords with his acute sense of the fragility of human life and the impotence of the person in the face of a power that can destroy happiness in an instant. Following V.A. Tunimanov, we term this power the “Unknown” (Nevedomoe). It has no class bias: barin and serf alike are subject to its whims.

Народные верования о сверхъестественном в Записках охотника Тургенева

Линда Иванич

В данной статье рассмотрены народные верования о сверхъестественном в некоторых очерках из Записок охотника. Тургеневский охотник-рассказчик далек от крестьян и в социальном, и в культурном плане. Наблюдая за их жизнью, многого в ней он понять не в силах. Поэтому внутренний мир крестьян раскрывает не рассказчик, а включение в текст ссылок на народную демонологию (нечистую силу), т.е. примет, «быличек» и афоризмов. Верования эти охотнику чужды, но несчастья, которые фольклор объясняет, близки каждому человеку, включая его. Использование фольклора в Записках охотника обнажает беспомощность человека перед лицом непонятной силы, способной его погубить. И это чувство незащищенности близко и персонажам, и автору. Вслед за В.А. Тунимановым, сила эта в данной статье называется «Неведомое». Неведомое выше классовых привилегий: и барин, и крепостной равно зависимы от его прихотей.

Linda Ivanits was, until her retirement, a Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on folklore and folklore in literature. She is the author of Russian Folk Belief (1989), Dostoevsky and the Russian People (2008), and numerous articles on the literary use of folklore.

The subject of folklore and literature has long been discussed. What is new is literary writers using folklorists as literary characters. According to Shelly Ingram, American fiction pictures folklorists as self-confident, but ignorant. Russian fantastika, on the other hand, mythologizes folklorists and attributes supernatural abilities to them. Fictional characters such as witches and shape-shifters behave as if they know folklore scholarship. Famous folklorists such as Propp, Frazer and possibly Nekliudov appear as characters in fantastika. The writers of fantastika draw on published sources rather than their personal experiences of lore and incorporate both applied folklore and folklore scholarship in their works.

Жертвоприношения Владыке Проппу: Фольклористы и фольклористика в современной русской фантастике

Лариса Фиалкова

Изучение использования фольклора в художественной литературе имеет давнюю историю, но теперь фольклористы сами стали персонажами. Обсуждения их исследований являются частью сюжетов. Как показала Шелли Инграм, американские фантасты видят в фольклористах самоуверенных невежд. Для русской фантастики характерна мифологизация фольклористов, приписывание им сверхъестественных способностей. Фантастический персонаж (например, ведьма или оборотень) может быть знатоком фольклора, а фольклористы (например, Пропп, Фрезер, и, возможно, Неклюдов) иногда оказываются фантастическими персонажами. Источником знаний писателей о легендах и верованиях является не столько устная среда, сколько исследования фольклористов, популярные энциклопедии и путеводители.

Larisa Fialkova is Associate Professor at the Department of Hebrew and Comparative Literature, University of Haifa. She authored the book Koly Hory Shkodiat'sia: Narysy z Ukrains'ko-izrail's'kykh Fol'klornykh Vzaemyn and co-authored two books with Maria Yelenevskaya: Ex-Soviets in Israel: From Personal Narratives to a Group Portrait and In Search of the Self: Reconciling the Past and the Present in Immigrants’ Experiences. Her papers, dealing with topics ranging from Chornobyl’s folklore, treasures and rail transport mythologies to alternative biographies of Dovbush, Bulgakov, Akhmatova and Gumilev, have appeared in Journal of Folklore Research, Fabula, Folklorica, Studia Mythologica Slavica, Umjetnost riječi, among other publications.

After his televised suicide in a courtroom of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, former Croatian Defence Council General and convicted war criminal Slobodan Praljak became the immediate focus of an outpouring of folklore commenting upon his death. A traditional reaction from a bard and a songwriter in Herzegovina reflected a common nationalistic Croatian response, depicting Praljak as a victim of injustice in a politicized kangaroo court. However, Praljak’s death saw much greater engagement from an international, computer-mediated, online community of meme creators. This group largely produced apolitical vernacular media removed from the specifics of Praljak’s trial, though some unique examples serve as a digital response to the narrative of Praljak as victim.

Zagrobni život generala Slobodana Praljka u folklornim umotvorinama

Dorian Jurić

29. studenog, 2017. g., bivši General pukovnik Hrvatskog vijeća obrane i osuđeni ratni zločinac, Slobodan Praljak, popio je otrov ispred kamera u raspravnoj dvorani Haškog suda za ratne zločine. Praljkovo javno samoubojstvo postalo je inspiracija mnogobrojnim folklornim umotvorinama. Posebno se istaknula pjesma hercegovačkih guslara Marka Čolaka i pjesnika Frane Mikulić-Jukića. Dvojac je uz tradicionalni deseterac opjevao nacionalistički pogled koji slavi hrvatska ratna lica kao narodne heroje te smatra Praljka kao žrtvu nepravde u politiziranom kvazisudu. No znatno veći interes pokrenut je na Internetu od strane raznih međunarodnih kreatora mimova. Oni su uglavnom kreirali nepolitičke mimove koji nisu povezani sa specifičnostima Praljkovog suđenja, iako postoji nekoliko jedinstvenih primjera koji se čine da su nastali kao protivni odgovor nacionalističkom pogledu.

Dorian Jurić is a Canadian cultural anthropologist, folklorist, and railroader whose research explores the political life of folklore and folk culture in the Western Balkans. His writing, on topics ranging from oral traditions and supernatural beings to comparative mythology and Ottoman coffee culture, has appeared in Oral Tradition, The Journal of American Folklore, Folklorica, and The Journal of Indo-European Studies. He is also the Vice President of The Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Folklore Association. Having recently received his PhD from McMaster University, he is now navigating the turbulent waters of the academic job market.

The theme of gender in Borodin’s Prince Igor has received only marginal attention. Considering Borodin’s advocacy of women’s education, a more complete examination of the theme is called for. The subplot of Prince Igor—Yaroslavna’s struggle to lead in Igor’s absence—should be seen in the light of Borodin’s work as an instructor in the Women’s Courses. In this context, the opera demonstrates Borodin’s belief that women should be given opportunities to lead. Additionally, Borodin explores the idea that society can be secure only when founded on marriages of equal partners who are equally committed to each other. Yaroslavna and Igor have parallel stories in the opera. They both prove their fidelity to each other and persevere despite devastating military defeats. Throughout the opera, Yaroslavna provides stability to both Igor and the people. They reunite as equals and thereby provide the nation with an opportunity to heal from the losses of the war. The opera thus mirrors the liberal views of the feminists who with Borodin championed women’s education and advancement. Borodin preaches what he practiced. The opera belongs with other literary and theatrical ruminations on the nineteenth-century “woman question.”

Мужайся, княгиня: «Князь Игорь» Александра Бородина и женский вопрос

Рэй Алстон

В статье рассматривается малоизученная связь между оперой «Князь Игорь» Александра Бородина и его политической деятельностью как преподаватель Высших женских курсов. Деятельность Бородина и его (редкие) замечания о курсах в своих письмах указывают на его средние либеральные взгляды. В отличие от более известных радикальных мыслителей женского вопроса (таких как Чернышевского), Бородин хотел практическими способами предоставить женщинам больше возможностей в сферах образования и работы без существенной переделки традиционых гендерных ролей и норм. Такие взгляды отражаются в изображении Ярославны в опере «Князь Игорь». В подсюжете, Ярославна управляет городом Путивль в отсутствие Игоря и сражается с половецскими и местными бунтарями, в том числе своим братом, Владимиром Галицским. Бородин охаректизирует Ярославну отчасти женскими стереотипами девятнадцатого века, тем не менее он показывает, что она вполне способна править. Он также представляет символическую связь между Ярославной и Богом, которая утверждает, что расширенные возможности для женщин не противоречат русскому религиозному наследию. Таким образом, Бородин поддерживает изменения в обществе, которые все еще остаются в рамках традиции и общепринятых норм.

Ray Alston has an MA and PhD in Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures from The Ohio State University, where he also instructed as a lecturer. He specializes in nineteenth-century Russian literature and music.

Ivan Blatný’s later poetry, much of it written at various hospitals and retirement homes in England, offers unique challenges and rewards in its apparent disorder. Given the sheer quantity of his writings, how should we make sense of them? How do we group poems and see the shape of, if not give shape to, his final collection, Bixley Remedial School? These questions are integral to the study of Blatný’s verse, not only regarding textological matters but interpretive ones as well. In working to bring some unity to Blatný’s poetry, the present article examines how he employs food imagery throughout Bixley Remedial School as a metapoetic metaphor for his quest to generate meaningful art even in a mundane reality. I first consider Blatný’s art within the context of food studies and what this field may say about a post-surrealist’s food poems. A series of close readings of exemplary texts, in which the poet frequently pairs food items with descriptions of his compositional methods, then clarifies how these patterns come to be and what they signify. The food imagery constellation is of special import, not only in its relative frequency, but also in underscoring the mundane qualities of Blatný’s reality and, in turn, how they nevertheless inspire the poet to produce such revolutionary texts. Foods as commonplace as lard and bacon become emblematic of the existential and creative difficulties he faces; they furthermore become entwined with other themes including sex and memory. This article, in other words, addresses how these poems represent their very creation and how they fulfill a need that is both physical and imaginative for the writer-in-exile.

José Vergara is Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian at Swarthmore College. He specializes in and has published several articles on prose of the long twentieth century with a focus on experimental works and contemporary culture. His book on literary responses to James Joyce is forthcoming in 2021 through Cornell University Press.