РОССИЙСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ ГУМАНИТАРНЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ

The study of folklore in Norway — from national identity to comparative cultural history

10 октября состоялся доклад Арне Бюгге Амундсена "The study of folklore in Norway — from national identity to comparative cultural history" в рамках Открытого научного семинара Института лингвистики

Дорогие студенты и преподаватели!

В новом учебном году продолжает работу Открытый научный семинар Института лингвистики.

Тридцать второе заседание семинара состоялось в понедельник 10 октября 2016 года.

С докладом "The study of folklore in Norway — from national identity to comparative cultural history" выступил декан филологического факультета Университета Осло Арне Бюгге Амундсен.

In Norway, as in many of the Scandinavian countries, the study of folklore was an important element of the construction of a national ‘folk’ identity in the 19th century. Norway having been under Danish control since the late middle ages sought to find its historical roots in the Viking and early middle ages, and an important source to these roots were the folklore and the material remnants of a genuine Norwegian culture. Folklore was collected as part of this endeavor, and folklore was edited and interpreted to a general public: Fairy tales, legends and ballads were regarded as ‘Norwegian’ in a specific meaning – in these genres the ‘voice of ancient Norway’ was found as nowhere else.

As a result of this genuine national, political and cultural interest in folklore, Scandinavia’s first academic chair in folklore studies was established by the Norwegian Parliament in 1886. The chair was held by Moltke Moe until his death in 1913. Based on his collections, the National Folklore Archive was established at the University of Oslo in 1914. Moltke Moe’s successors – Knut Liestol, Svale Solheim and Olav Bo – continued the – albeit critical – keeping of the national traditions. An important element was the defense of the ‘folk’ against any attempt to minimize the importance of folklore and its status as representations of the Norwegian national identity. Svale Solheim was a materialist and a communist, but he still defended the legacy of the (suppressed) Norwegian peasant culture.

In the 1970’s the study of folklore in Norway slowly developed in new directions. Bjarne Hodne, Olav Bo’s successor as chair of folklore studies at the University of Oslo, started a series of meta-oriented studies in folklore – focusing on source criticism and academic ideology. Hodne’s students took these impulses further, in as much as the academic field of folklore studies in 2003 was converted into ‘cultural history’. This shift opened new possibilities of expanding the interest in folk culture and folklore. The ‘cultural history turn’ at the University of Oslo sustained the historical dimension of the discipline and paved the way to international comparative analyses.