Communicative and collective memory, archives and everyday life singing in the 20th century Czech lands.

0559482 - EÚ 2023 PT eng A - Abstract
Skořepová, Zita
Communicative and collective memory, archives and everyday life singing in the 20th century Czech lands.
[World Conference of the ICTM (International Council for Traditional Music) /46./. 21.07.2022-27.07.2022, Lisabon]
Institutional support: RVO:68378076
Keywords : ethnomusicology * collective memory * communicative memory * everyday life singing * 20th century * Czechoslovakia
OECD category: Antropology, ethnology
http://ictmusic.org/ictm2022/programme

The present paper aims to use the example of a leading Czech obstetrician and amateur song collector and singer Antonín Doležal to point out to the interconnectedness of ethnomusicology and oral history. It also aims to demonstrate dynamics of archive collections-living memory relationship. The primary role in the specific contents of Doležal’s life-story autobiography is played by his recollections of spontaneous amateur singing, everyday singing occasions and their meanings. The study reveals the extent to which memories of various forms of singing can shed light on the key periods and events of Czech history and, simultaneously, the changes of everyday life singing. It is a certain number of specific songs that serves as the main vehicles of memory throughout his narration, leading the narrator to recall specific contents of communicative memory but also refer to aspects of Czech collective memory of the 2nd half of the 20th century. The contribution is based on interviews, which were designed as autobiographical narration grounded in oral history, including narrator’s life story and follow-up semi-structured interviews conducted from 2013 to 2019. A significant complementary method is the contrasting of the narrator’s knowledge of songs and his memories of singing occasions with materials of the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences and critical editions by Czech folklore and ethnomusicology scholars.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0332906