Vol. 78 No. 2/3 – Spring/Summer, 2019
Articles
“I Know History”: Experience, Belief and Politics in the Post-Socialist Diaspora
Mariya Lesiv
ABSTRACT: Using the case study of new Canadians who support the annexation of Crimea by Russia, this paper shows how political convictions sometimes follow formation trajectories that are similar to those of experience-based spiritual beliefs. The paper contextualizes personal narratives of some Russians who once resided in republics of the former Soviet Union outside of Russia and who experienced social turmoil associated with the collapse of the Communist regime. It further provides comparative references to immigrants from the former Yugoslavia. KEYWORDS: Belief, Personal Narrative, Folklore and Politics
Agency and Patriarchy in Carpatho-Rusyn Werewolf Stories.
Elena Boudovskaia
ABSTRACT: This article investigates female agency in contemporary werewolf stories from a village in Transcarpathian Ukraine. I show that in stories told by women, female characters are mentally and verbally agentive. The patriarchal model of marriage is referenced by all female speakers; however, in certain werewolf stories agentive wives can get rid of their abusive husbands. The article shows the possibility of a gap between the generally accepted patriarchal model of marriage, and the speaker’s attitudes towards it. KEYWORDS: Rusyn Folklore, Werewolf, Agency, Patriarchy, Cultural Models.
Verbal Markets and Games in the eValuation of Myth, With an Appeal to Hermes, Aesop, and Virtual Worlds
Robert W. Guyker, Jr.
ABSTRACT: This paper treats the concepts of agora and agon as formative principles in the conception and valuation of myths. A discussion of the Greek deity Hermes and legendary Aesop serve as heuristic figures for theorizing myths and their function. Finally, John Miles Foley’s notion of three agoras is used as a framework for the analysis of oral, textual, and virtual arenas that exercise discrete, but contiguous transpositions of mythic discourse. KEYWORDS: myths, agoras, Aesopica, video games, virtual worlds
Review Essays
The First Book of Jewish Jokes: The Collection of L. M. Büschenthal
Reviewed by Ian Brodie
Reviews
Marsha MacDowell, Clare Luz, and Beth Donaldson, Quilts and Health
Reviewed by Deanna Allred
Gabrielle Anna Berlinger, Framing Sukkot
Reviewed by Violet Baron
Barbara Voorhies, Prehistoric Games of North American Indians Subarctic to Mesoamerica
Reviewed by Anna Beresin
Fernando Orejuela and Stephanie Shonekan, Black Lives Matter & Music: Protest, Intervention, Reflection
Reviewed by Aisha Gallion
Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Maria Tatar, The Annotated African American Folktales
Reviewed by Lesley Ham
Franz Rickaby with Gretchen Dykstra and James P. Leary, Pinery Boys: Songs and Songcatching in the Lumberjack Era
Reviewed by Gregory Hansen
Dahlia Schweitzer, Going Viral
Reviewed by Michelle W. Jones
Anthony Bak Buccitelli, City of Neighborhoods: Memory, Folklore, and Ethnic Place in Boston
Reviewed by Millie Rahn
Arlene M. Sánchez Walsh, Pentecostals in America
Reviewed by Ethan Sharp
Luisa Del Giudice, On Second Thought: Learned Women Reflect on Profession, Community, and Purpose
Reviewed by Kathleen Bond Williams