The paradox of authenticity: folklore performance in post-communist Slovakia

0494946 - FLÚ 2019 RIV US eng B - Monography
Feinberg, Joseph Grim
The paradox of authenticity: folklore performance in post-communist Slovakia.
Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2018. 234 s. ISBN 978-0-299-31660-0
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA17-23955S
Institutional support: RVO:67985955
Keywords : East-Central Europe * post-Communism * authenticity * performance * poetics * the people * folklore
OECD category: Antropology, ethnology

Observing the activities of urban folk dance enthusiasts in Slovakia, Joseph Grim Feinberg sets out to scrutinize the processes by which “authentic folklore” is identified, talked about, represented, reconstructed, reenacted, and revived. In Weaving together personal narrative, ethnographic analysis, and philosophical reflection, Feinberg examines the aspirations and difficulties of young folk dance devotees as they recognize that authenticity is more easily prized than achieved. He sheds new light on the problems of specialized performance and broad participation, the uneasy relationship between folklore and the public sphere, and the paradoxical pursuit of authenticity in the modern world.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0292664