Vol. 79 No. 2/3 – Spring/Summer, 2020

Folklore in the Time of Young Turks: Situating a New Discipline in Nineteenth Century Ottoman Thought

Arzu Öztürkmen

ABSTRACT: Folklore served Turkish nationalism in different ways. This essay explores five original texts of folklore written by Young Turk intellectuals, namely Ziya Gökalp, Yusuf Akçura, Fuat Köprülü, Rιza Tevfik and Selim Sιrrι Tarcan, between 1913-1929. It elaborates on the ways in which these Ottoman intellectuals approached this new discipline and discussed its use in the context of rising Turkish nationalism. KEYWORDS: History of folklore, Nationalism, Young Turks, Turkism, Turkey

“In the Village Circle”: Washington Irving and Transatlantic Folk Revivals

Celestina Savonius-Wroth

ABSTRACT: Washington Irving has long attracted the interest of folklorists for his literary use of folkloric material, which he crafted into enduring North American legends such as the story of Rip Van Winkle. In this article, I argue that he was a participant in one of the earliest self-conscious revivals of folk traditions in the English-speaking world, motivated by social and religious concerns. KEYWORDS: Irving; folk revival; Protestantism; Romanticism; holidays

The Folkloric Identity is the Thing

Juwen Zhang

ABSTRACT: As folkloristics has evolved through several methodological paradigm shifts, the notion of “folk” has expanded from referring to specific groups to any group whatsoever. In this process, the notion of “ethnic folklore” has come to be defined by a latent ideological paradigm based on racism and colonialism. This article suggests the concept of “folkloric identity” as a reflexive attempt to expose and oppose this paradigm. KEYWORDS: folkloric identity, ethnic identity, racism, ideology, paradigm shift

At the Times of Writing: Expectation and Experience in Cruising Sailors’ Online Travelogues

Hanna Jansson

ABSTRACT: This paper on cruising sailors’ online travelogues examines storytelling as an ongoing process. In this work, I combine perspectives from research on narrative and on the experience of time to introduce an analytical simile comparing storytelling with the embroidery stitch backstitch. I show the ways in which cruisers write their way along travelled routes, describing past and future events from an ever-changing present position for a contemporaneous audience. KEYWORDS: Immediate storytelling, expectation, cruising sailors, online travelogues, performance.