Folkoristics

The traditional concept for Folklore as collective inheritance without a single author has been shaken by the sub-genre of oral prose – the oral personal narrative. This oral narrative which is based on personal oral testimony of a narrator, who claims to have been originally involved in the events and who narrates his personal experience without traditional content and without hiding the identity, needs different treatment in comparison with previous folkloristic genres and sub-genres. 
Life stories, oral autobiographies, or whether only the oral testimonies, are not only products of our experiences that go through our memory and reevaluation, but are also works of art. We during daily communication, while expressing our daily experiences, use the narrative techniques, forms and stylistic figures that make these oral narratives a complex oral genre.
On oral narrative genres important contribution gave Carl Wilhelm von Sydow, William Labov & Joshua Waletzky, Linda Dégh, Sandra Dolby Stahl, Annikki Kaivola - Bregenhoj, , Barbro Klein, Anne Heimo etc., who helped for conceptualizing the new sub-genre in oral narrative called Oral Personal Narrative, as a single unit (Sandra Dolby Stahl).
This sub-genre, even that not with this name – the oral personal narrative – was treated also from folklorists of the region, taking in consideration work of Maja Bošković Stulli and Mirna Velčić, as well as Albanian folklorists from Kosovo and Albania.
In this paper, we will bring theoretical concepts and thoughts, pro et contra, that faced Folkloristics, for formulating the definition of the oral personal narrative in Albanian speaking Folkloristic, as well.

М ои воспоминания о Викторе Евгеньевиче Гусеве не претендуют на полноту-они охватывают всего двенадцать лет: от наших первых деловых встреч 1958 г. до первой совместной поездки в Югославию 1970 г. То были двенадцать лет многообещающих начал и многотрудных продолжений. Принципиально не отступая от дневниковых записей, я упоминаю только факты, зафиксированные по живым следам. Необходимые пояснения к ним минимальны. 1958 г. отмечен тремя событиями, так или иначе меня профессионально коснувшимися, значительность которых, однако, далеко превосходит скромные факты моей биографии. 28 мая 1958 г. было обнародовано Постановление ЦК КПСС «Об исправлении ошибок в оценке опер "Великая дружба", "Богдан Хмельницкий" и "От всего сердца"». Тем, кто не пережил те годы лично, трудно читать между строк сохранившуюся в печати официальную реакцию на это постановление, но еще труднее прочувствовать неофициальное настроение советской интеллигенции тех дней. Например, в газете «Правда» от 13 июня появился, за подписью Д. Д. Шостаковича, следующий текст: «Я глубоко взволнован проявлением заботы и внимания Коммунистической партии к советской музыке и советским композиторам. <…> Необычайно высокий идейный и морально-этический уровень этого постановления восхищает нас, советских музыкантов, и всех многочисленных почитателей советской музыки». Странно, что подобные откровенно фальшивые тексты не воспринимались «вверху» как прямое издевательство над постановлением, а напротив, приветствовались-как всегда в подобных случаях, без малейшего чувства юмора. Тем не менее многими ощущалось пусть робкое, но все же начало «оттепели». Весна была в разгаре. В моем дневнике за 10 июня сохранилась лишь одна фраза: «Постановление ЦК по вопросам музыкального творчества». И немудрено-у меня, пятикурсника, в ЛГУ шли государственные экзамены. Как будто специально, в те дни я сдавал экзамен по истории КПСС. Цитирую дневник: «Самое интересное-то, что председателем гос. комиссии был В. Я. Пропп! Я так удивился, что хотел уйти обратно, думая, что не туда попал. Но отвечал я, к счастью, не Владимиру Яковлевичу, а экзаменаторам, сидящим за другим столом…

A Psychosocial Critique of Sabina Magliocco's "Witching Culture". Citations that have only page numbers refer to that work.

This examination of Magliocco's sociological analysis brings an additional cross-disciplinary element by suggesting that personality traits are a salient factor in the adoption of and development of individual Pagan identities. The titular "Openness to Experience" refers to the Openness construct from Costa and McCrae's ubiquitous five factor model (FFM) of personality. A special relationship between analytical psychology and Pagan identities is also considered.

Further etic approaches may be justified in order to further substantiate the theory of a direct relationship between the Openness construct and Pagan identity formation.

This paper also discusses Magliocco's findings in light of a range of western philosophical schools of thought.

Beginning with the understanding, that belief in the supernatural expresses itself in multiple folkloric manifestations, this thesis sought to document traditions about the revenant, narratives about the blood-seeking non-human, human-animal transformations and the after-life culture of the Khasi ethnic community in North Eastern India. But the research process of documentation through fieldwork led to several questions related with the multiple articulations of belief. Accordingly, this thesis makes an attempt to analyse the storyworld of the Khasis, and it’s intersections with their social and religious reality. It presents a case study seen from the context of marginalisation, the indigenous heritage and conflicted intentions where belief becomes suggestive of a community’s need to come to terms with it’s own place alongside other ethnic identities. This thesis also looks at the various social mechanisms that are employed toward a reconciliation with modernity and Christianity whilst retaining a sense of what it means to be Khasi. The outcome is a hybrid interaction between religion, society, and the supernatural realm in the everyday life which is not fixed, but which accommodates shifting belief and notions about the self and personhood. Accordingly, narratives of the vanishing hitchhiker and the non-human Thlen were collected in order to examine the functions they perform in the context of the matrilineal social structure and the highly urbanised, modern environment of Shillong city. The analyses showed how the existing structures in society were subverted as a result of the circulation of the revenant narratives. The consequences of the circulation of “dark”, and malicious folklore often lead to the loss of life, mob violence and “othering” of groups of people within Khasi society. In the peripheral areas of the Khasi Hills, the phenomenon of human-animal transformations revealed the ability of culture to adapt to changing circumstances, and sustain itself through narratives. Significant aspects that are discussed in depth comprise the strategies of meaning-making in the context of the discourse of encounters: the preservation of indigenous beliefs is made possible through their demonisation by the Khasi Christian Church. This thesis does not arrive at a homogenised, coherent conclusion about contemporary Khasi society; rather it looks at the multivalent nature of folk beliefs and narratives, and presents a non-linear, layered glimpse into the life ways of the community.