How fiction becomes ethnography. The case of one quotation
https://doi.org/10.28995/2658-5294-2019-2-4-84-106
Abstract
The paper discusses the sources used by I.M. Snegirev in his work “Russian folk festivals and superstitious rites” (1839) for the description of the autumn commemorative rite in Lithuania and Belorussia. The authors reveal that Snegirev, along with in the narrow sense ethnographic, historical texts and Slavic dictionaries, used as a source the second part of the drama “Dziady” (1823) by Adam Mickiewicz (namely, its preface, poetic refrains and particular motives). Besides that, Mickiewicz’s “Dziady” served as a source for some other ethnographic works, e. g. for the article by A.O. Muchlińsky on folk rites in the Novogrudok powiat (1830), which was also used by Snegirev. From the other side, Mickiewicz’s drama displayed both ethnographic impressions of his own childhood and youth, and images of the armchair “national mythology” obtained from the literary sources. Mickiewicz combines motifs and formulas, referring to various folklore and mythological discourses (from one side, elements of the authentic rite, aimed at communication with ancestors’ souls, and formulas and motifs of balladic narratives concerning the “impure” dead from the other side). Snegirev, in his turn, goes even further and combines those versatile elements within a single “folklore” text (an appeal to the summoned souls).
Textual analysis allows for finding out the ways of borrowing as well as the mechanisms of compilation, and raises the following issues. The first one is that of the sources perception by the authors who stood at the origins of Slavic ethnography, and of the quoting particularities of quoting, what turns the original author’s text into a type of “general” folklore knowledge. The second one is the understanding literary compilation as a method for transmission of information, when the initial text is transformed in a way to approximate the national tradition.
About the Authors
M. V. Akhmetova
The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Cand. of Sci. (Philology)
bld. 82, Vernadskogo Av., Moscow, 119571
O. V. Belova
Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Dr. of Sci. (Philology)
bld. 32-A, Leninsky Av., Moscow, 119991
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Review
For citations:
Akhmetova M.V., Belova O.V. How fiction becomes ethnography. The case of one quotation. Folklore: Structure, Typology, Semiotics. 2019;2(4):84-106. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2658-5294-2019-2-4-84-106
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