Academic literature on the topic 'Folklore and nationalism'

This article describes how Brazilian composer José Siqueira (1907-1985) used musical elements from the folkloric tradition known as Maracatu in the composition of the songs titled Loanda and Maracatu. A secondary goal is to suggest interpretative performance approaches that take into consideration the musical, textual, and sociocultural aspects of these songs. The methodology for the analyses was based on the categories and terms for examining the musical frameworks of art songs outlined by Carol Kimball in her two books about art song, as well as Siqueira’s own-devised Trimodal System. In Loanda and Maracatu, the composer uses several rhythmic cells that are characteristic of the Maracatu folkloric tradition, as well as a clear twentieth-century musical language, confirming Siqueira’s two aesthetic orientations: Folkloric Nationalism (when the composer uses the pure elements of folklore) and Essential Nationalism (when the composer draws inspiration from folklore to create his own musical language).

Instilling the character of nationalism in students can be done through literacy programs with folklore media. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the content of character education in folklore. The purpose of this study was to describe the content of nationalism character education in folklore from Wonogiri (Central Java) as a literacy medium for elementary school students. This research is a qualitative descriptive study with a content analysis model. The results of the analysis found that the main values of the character of nationalism include: (1) respecting, maintaining, and appreciating the diversity of cultures and ethnic groups, (2) discipline and obeying the law, (3) protecting the environment, (4) love for the homeland, (5) Achieve and excel, (6) Willing to sacrifice. The conclusion of the study shows that not all the main values of the character of nationalism are contained in every folklore, therefore teachers as literacy implementers must be able to add these deficiencies from other sources so that they can contribute to inculcating the character of nationalism in students.

There are different researches and studies that have appeared regarding nationalism. There are 3 major theories of these studies, these studies are: primary, modernist, and ethno-symbolic hypotheses. Primary hypothesis claims that all nations came from the same race, and they share the same religion, language, culture and history. The modernist hypothesis claims that nationalism is a communal necessity. In this theory, nationalism explains the modernist process that was affected by social, political, and economic parameters. Finally, the ethno-symbolism theory posits that nationalism is mainly based on ethnic origin and culture. The Epic of “Turnalar” by Ozanturk has pushed the Turkish culture forward. There are three sections connected to each other that talk about the Turkish communities in the “Turnalar” Epic. The first section talks about the Turkish people in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, North Cyprus, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Turkey.Second section talks about Turkish tribes who live in Iraq, Iran, East Turkistan, Kirim, Tataristan, Main Kurdistan, Yakutsk, Chuvashia, The Republic of Altai, The Republic of Tuva, etc…The third section details the Turkish people who are struggling to live in eastern European countries such as Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Albania, Hungary and Macedonia. “Turnalar” is the first work of Bayram Durbilmez who used Ozanturk as a nickname. Bayram Durbilmez used Ozanturk as a nickname for the first time in “Turnalar”. Durbilmez is known by literature studies about love, religious literature, and Turkish national folklore. This scholar defended Turkish nationalism in non-governmental organizations, some foundations, and associations. He used the Ozanturk nickname in his work which shows us how much of a nationalist he is in the literature world. This thesis aims to study “Turnalar” by Ozanturk from the nationalist aspect. By doing this, this thesis will reference his nationalist academic studies. Keywords: Nationalism, Nationalist Theories, Turkish Communities, Ozanturk, Turnalar, Saga, Love Literature

Introduction: Character education for children today is very important to improve. One of the efforts to improve children's character education is through folklore. The purpose of this study is to describe the inculcation of educational values in Folklore from Surabaya as a supporter of character learning in elementary schools. Methods: Research on planting educational values in folklore from Surabaya to Support Character Learning is a qualitative descriptive study. The research approach used in this study is pragmatic. In the pragmatic approach, it is related to benefits or utility as stated by Horatius. A pragmatic approach is an approach that sees literary works as a medium to convey certain goals to the reader. These goals can be in the form of goals that have to do with education, morals, politics, religion, or other goals. Results: The approach in this study refers to the educational value in Folklore from Surabaya which consists of nine stories. Sawunggaling Folklore contains several character values, namely, persistence, love for the homeland, and responsibility. The Kalimas legend contains the character values of mutual cooperation, the spirit of nationalism (nationalism), and love for the homeland. The Story of the Origin of Ketintang Village contains the character of caring, responsibility, mutual cooperation, persistence, and perseverance, tolerance, hard work, creativity, and independence. The fairy tale of Jaka Dolog is a fairy tale with the theme of the need for honesty. Ki Ageng Jangrana who rebelled against the Dutch was a form of nationalism, responsibility, and self-sacrifice character values. In Folklore from Surabaya, religious values are found in the stories of Ki Ageng Brondong and Sunan Ampel. Conclusion: Folklore originating from Surabaya contains educational values ​​that can be adopted by teachers to support student character education.

Québécois nationalist ideologies base the uniqueness of Québécois identity on distinctive cultural traditions which, they urge, need to be protected. Among other cultural specialists, folklorists have worked to document traditional Québécois culture. But such research ‘objectifies’ traditional culture by placing it in new settings and attaching new meanings to it. And folklorists, as traditional in Québec as ‘tradition’ itself, thereby change the culture that they intended to preserve. Thus the question arises: was Québec ever a folk society, homogeneous and isolated, or were folk traditions continually recreated by scholars and nationalists alike?

Abstract The discipline of folklore studies was introduced to China in the early twentieth century while the country faced a grave national crisis resulting from intense foreign pressure and a rigid political system that was incapable of adapting to the challenges of the modern world. Nationalism contributed to the rising interest in folklore from the late 1910s to early 1920s, then became the dominant theme of folklore studies thereafter. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, folklore studies spread all over the country and developed vigorously within China. However, the eruption of the War of Resistance in 1937 interrupted this revitalization process and most folklore activities came to a standstill. In wartime China, leading scholars looked to the past in part as a reaction to Japanese imperialism, but also to strengthen cultural cohesion for the nation. In Japanese-occupied areas, some scholars persisted in independent folklore investigations and writing even though most upper tier Chinese universities and leading figures in the folklore movement gradually relocated to non-occupied territory. Scholars who remained in the occupation zone often had contact with foreign-backed institutions and were able to continue working during the war years. Their research activities served the purpose of rallying the nation and fed a growing popular demand for more and deeper investigations into China’s folk traditions. This work examines the influence of nationalism on folk studies in Beiping and Shanghai, shining a light on folklorists’ activities, folklore organizations, and primary publications during China’s War of Resistance against Japan.

Kyoto University (京都大学)
0048
新制・課程博士
博士(人間・環境学)
甲第11672号
人博第278号
新制||人||69(附属図書館)
16||169(吉田南総合図書館)
23315
UT51-2005-D421
京都大学大学院人間･環境学研究科文化･地域環境学専攻
(主査)教授 鈴木 雅之, 教授 丸橋 良雄, 助教授 水野 眞理, 助教授 桂山 康司
学位規則第4条第1項該当

Cette étude retrace, à partir des archives des danseurs et chorégraphes ainsi que des institutions culturelles et politiques, l’évolution de l’espace de la danse en roumanie dès sa création dans les années 1920 jusqu’à la chute du régime communiste en 1989 et interroge, à travers une approche socio-historique, le lien complexe entre danse et politique qui caractérise la configuration du champ chorégraphique roumain au vingtième siècle
Starting from archives of dancers, choreographers, cultural and political institutions, this study shapes the history of the romanian field of dance since its creation in the early 1920s until the end of the communist regime in 1989. its main focus is an analysis of the complex connection between dance and politics that defines the romanian world of dance during the twentieth century

Em 1921, o Conselho Nacional de Educação da Argentina aprovou a realização de um inquérito para compilar as tradições identificadas ao folclore nacional. A tarefa foi confiada a professores de milhares de escolas subordinadas ao órgão e localizadas, sobretudo, nas áreas rurais do país. Esse projeto relacionava-se às concepções de intelectuais identificados ao nacionalismo da chamada Geração do Centenário da Independência de 1910, preocupados em reafirmar a identidade nacional diante de um contexto de instabilidade social e de uma sociedade heterogênea, conformada por indígenas, imigrantes etc. Por meio da análise da documentação coletada no Território Nacional do Río Negro, antiga região de fronteira recém-incorporada como unidade político-administrativa do Estado, serão discutidos os alcances e limites desse projeto, tendo em vista os ideais nacionalistas, o contexto histórico nacional e local e as particularidades inerentes ao conceito de cultura popular, como as dinâmicas de circularidade. Desse modo, serão demonstradas as maneiras pelas quais os professores, enquanto intermediários culturais, atuaram nos espaços de negociação possíveis entre a proposta formal e a aplicação do inquérito, bem como a inserção da Encuesta na consolidação simbólica do Estado-nacional argentino.
In March 1921, the Argentinian National Education Council approved the realization of an enquiry that would collect national folklore traditions. That work was given to the teachers of the thousands schools under Council administration and located, substantially, at rural areas. The project was related to intellectuals conceptions aligned with so-called Independence Centenary Generation nationalism, dedicated to affirm national identity attributes in contrast to a context characterized by social instability and heterogeneous society, composed of native population, immigrants, etc. By means of analyzing documents collected on Río Negro National Territory, boundary region newly added as a federal unity, they will be discussed ranges and limits of the project, considering nationalistic ideals, national and regional historical contexts and particularities concerned to popular culture concept, like interrelationship dynamics for example. Thus it will be demonstrated how teachers, as passeurs culturels, acted on the negotiation margins between formal proposal and real enquiry application, as well as Encuesta insertion in symbolic consolidation of Argentinian nation state.

Making use of knowledge from a wide range of disciplines, this thesis analyses the interactions of culture and economy, particularly regarding the influence of nineteenthcentury historiography, on Shetland’s present-day economic development. Shetland’s local identity concept is strongly influenced by this North Sea archipelago’s Norse history. This is in part the result of the islands’ late nineteenth- and early twentiethcentury national romantic literature, which was inspired by Continental and mainland British trends in anthropology and philology. The theories of fairy origins proposed in the 1890s by the Edinburgh anthropologist David MacRitchie exerted a great influence on Shetland writers. His theories – since shown to be incorrect – led to the historiographic dehumanisation of the islands’ pre-Norse population and permitted the complete valorisation of the Vikings, most notably in the work of the Shetland author Jessie Saxby. Since the 1930s, a variation of MacRitchie’s theory has been repeated in nearly every local book concerning Shetland folk belief. These conceptions of history continue to inform the sense of local identity felt by many Shetlanders. This has come into conflict with the local government’s efforts at place brand, tourism, heritage, and economic development, all of which tie into a broader struggle between fostering Shetland’s national awareness and expanding Shetland’s jurisdictional capacity. Particular attention is paid to how history is used variously by the community to express exclusivity and by the local government to promote inclusivity.

There is an overwhelming tendency for scholars of Polish music to politicise the presence of folk music references when they appear in art music compositions. This has particularly been the case in studies of Frédéric Chopin, where certain myths pertaining to that composer’s extramusical intentions long dominated how his music was unpacked in musicological discourse. In this thesis, I demonstrate that our understanding of later Polish composers suffers similarly from this tendency. In an examination of the discourse surrounding both Karol Szymanowski and Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, I show that a myopic understanding of the compositional possibilities bound up in folk music engagement has limited the scope of our interrogations into their compositional practices. I then reposition folk music as an aesthetic tool in their works that has enabled these artists to negotiate the compositional challenges confronting their respective generations. In addition to improving our understanding of these two composers’ methods, my analyses highlight how folk music models can lend a sense of familiarity and cohesion to the modern musical aesthetic. I then take these findings and define a framework for categorising the aesthetic function of folklore in modern Polish music. Turning to my own compositional practice, I analyse a portfolio of original works that have been influenced by my concurrent study of Polish composers and Polish folk music. With this I demonstrate how these categories of aesthetic function have enabled me to engage with a wide range of traditional sources, including Polish folk music, folk music from other cultures, and other non-musical artefacts of Polish culture. I further show that, within this breadth of historical sources, there exists a significant amount of aesthetic potential waiting to be unpacked by any modern composer who shares my goal to create music that is cohesive, conveys a clear musical narrative, and possesses a strong individual identity.

Estonian national identity is defined by its centuries-long struggle forindependence and autonomy. This thesis examines this struggle and resulting identity through the lens of the laulupidu, or song festival, and its employment as a vehicle of political mobilization and re-constructor of Estonian history. Regarding folklore, in this case festivals and folk songs, as containers of the soul of the nation, I show how Estonians have produced and reproduced their national identity through the practice which they hold sacred: choral singing. I implemented a critical geopolitical approach coupled with Billig’s concepts of ‘hot’ and banal nationalism, and Paasi’s focus on independence, to study the 2014 song festival, entitled “Touched by Time. The Time to Touch.” Utilizing the song selection from the 2014 festival and comparing it against the programs from festivals ranging from 1869-2009 (from which selections were gleaned for the 2014 event), this thesis shows how Estonian national identity and historical memory are reconstructed through the symbolic choice of song.

In the centuries since the colonization of the New World, the people of Cuba created a strong musical tradition. Initially, their music mirrored the European composition canons of structural, melodic and harmonic order. The eventual confluence of its distinct cultural elements (i.e. the European, African, and, to a lesser extent, Amerindian) led to the emergence of a new, distinctly Cuban musical tradition. The wars for independence that began in the United States and Europe in the eighteenth century created a surge towards political and cultural autonomy that swept across the Latin American colonies, generating a wave of nationalism during the nineteenth century. After finally gaining its independence in 1902, Cuba sought to define itself as a nation. Cubans looked inward to their regional folklore—their indigenous and popular traditions—for the source of their national identity, a trend that became of primary interest to Cuban artists. The nationalist trend found full musical expression during the twentieth century, when composers turned to folklore for their inspiration in creating new art music (works for the concert hall) with a unique sound and vitality. This study concerns itself with the Cuban nationalist movement and its role in the creation of art music by twentieth-century Cuban composers, most specifically that of Mario Abril. The monograph is organized into three general sections: the first section (Chapters 2 and 3) identifies the significant characteristics of nationalism, describes the manifestation of some relevant nationalist movements (e.g., in Europe and Latin America), and explores the manifestation of the nationalist movement in Cuba. The second section (Chapters 4 and 5) provides a history of Cuban art music, concluding with a biographical sketch of composer Mario Abril. The third part (Chapters 6 and 7)consists of a study of the music, beginning with a description of the pertinent characteristics of Cuban popular music, followed by an examination Mario Abril’s Fantasía (Introduction and Pachanga) for clarinet and piano. The document concludes with remarks about the characteristics that qualify the work as an example of Cuban nationalist art music with suggestions for the study and interpretation of the work.

Cette thèse a été réalisée en cotutelle entre l'Université de Montréal et l'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales de Paris, sous la direction de Michel Duchesneau (UdeM) et Esteban Buch (EHESS). La version intégrale de cette thèse est disponible uniquement pour consultation individuelle à la Bibliothèque de musique de l'Université de Montréal (http://www.bib.umontreal.ca/MU).
Cette thèse a pour objectif d’approfondir les notions de nationalisme et de cosmopolitisme ainsi que les liens qui peuvent exister entre elles à travers l’œuvre et la carrière de Casella. Le pianiste et compositeur italien Alfredo Casella est né à Turin en 1883. Les conservatoires italiens de l’époque ne pouvant lui offrir une formation musicale adéquate et complémentaire à celle reçue auprès de sa famille, Casella gagne la France. Il fait ses études au Conservatoire de Paris jusqu’en 1902, auprès de Gabriel Fauré et Louis Diémer. Au cours de ces années passées en France (1896-1915), Casella prend une part active dans la vie musicale parisienne. Il se produit dans plusieurs salons, dans de nombreux concerts organisés par des sociétés françaises (à la fois comme pianiste et comme compositeur). À travers son activité journalistique très riche, Casella s’implique activement dans les débats et les polémiques ayant cours à l’époque dans le milieu musical français. Lors de ces dix-neuf années françaises, Casella est exposé aux courants nationalistes qui habitent les milieux artistiques français. Parallèlement à ces tendances, Casella baignera dans les diverses influences étrangères (russes, allemandes, espagnoles, hongroises) qui convergent vers cette véritable plaque tournante qu’est le Paris du début du XXe siècle. Ces multiples influences (celles de Stravinsky, Bartók, De Falla, entre autres) se retrouvent toutes intégrées dans ses œuvres musicales. À tel point que l’on surnommera Casella le « caméléon ». Le déclenchement de la Première Guerre mondiale force Casella à retourner en Italie. La péninsule est alors dominée par la musique d’opéra et la production de musique instrumentale y est presque inexistante. Casella se donne la mission de « rénover » la musique instrumentale et de combattre activement le courant conservateur associé à la musique d’opéra italienne. Un tel renouveau musical sera possible, selon Casella, si les compositeurs italiens de la nouvelle génération parviennent à renoncer aux excès sentimentaux du romantisme. C’est ce que Casella s’efforcera de faire dans ses propres œuvres. Mais ce ne sera pas suffisant. Les jeunes compositeurs devront étudier les œuvres des grands maîtres italiens des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, tout en intégrant les innovations techniques des musiques contemporaines européennes. Casella proposera un programme d’éducation s’adressant autant aux jeunes compositeurs qu’au public italien. La pédagogie sera la clé qui permettra d’accéder au renouveau musical. Professeur de piano à l’Accademia Santa Cecilia, puis au Conservatoire de Rome et finalement à l’Accademia Chigiana de Sienne, Casella se servira de ces positions pour initier le mouvement dont il se veut le porte-parole. Il mettra également sur pied deux sociétés de concerts, la Società Italiana di Musica Moderna (1916-1918) et la Corporazione delle Nuove Musiche (1924-1928). Avec ces deux sociétés de concerts destinées à faire reconnaître les musiques contemporaines en Italie, Casella parvient à se forger un impressionnant réseau international qui contribuera à son vaste plan de développement de la musique italienne dans un contexte mondial. L’objectif de Casella est de redonner sa dignité à l’art musical italien. Dans les années 1930, sa volonté de rénover la musique de la péninsule concorde avec plusieurs traits de la politique culturelle du régime fasciste de Benito Mussolini. Le nom de Casella sera donc souvent associé aux réalisations culturelles du régime fasciste, ce qui semble contradictoire avec les intentions universalisantes du compositeur.
This dissertation seeks to study the notions of nationalism and cosmopolitanism as well as the possible links between them, through the work and career of Casella. The Italian pianist and composer Alfredo Casella was born in Turin in 1883. Being unable to obtain in the Italian conservatories of the time an adequate musical formation, that would have been complementary to the one received through his family, Casella reaches France. He studies at the Paris Conservatory until 1902, as a pupil of Gabriel Fauré and Louis Diémer. During the years spent in Paris (1896-1915), Casella takes an active part in the Parisian musical life. He performs in many salons, in many concerts organized by French societies (both as a pianist and as a composer). Through his very rich journalistic activity, Casella implicates himself actively in the current debates and polemics of the French musical environment. During these nineteen French years, Casella is exposed to the nationalist currents that inhabit the French artistic milieux. Simultaneously to the very strong expression of this nationalism, Casella will literally be imbued in the various foreign influences (Russian, German, Spanish, Hungarian) than present in this center that is the Paris of the beginning of the XXth century. These multiple influences (those of Stravinsky, Bartók, De Falla) are all integrated in his compositional work, to such an extent that one calls Casella the « chameleon ». The First World War forces Casella to return to Italy. The peninsula is than dominated by operatic music and the instrumental music production is almost inexistent. Casella gives himself the mission of reforming the instrumental music and of fighting actively against Italian operatic music. Such a musical revival will be possible, according to Casella, if Italian composers manage to give up sentimental excesses of the romanticism. This is what Casella will endeavor to do in his own works. But it will not be sufficient. The young composers will have to study the works of Italian great master of the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries, while integrating technical innovations of European contemporary musics. Casella suggests a reeducation program for the young composers, but also for the Italian public. The pedagogy is, according to Casella, the key which will give access to this musical revival. He will be piano teacher at the Accademia Santa Cecilia, tan at the Rome Conservatory and, finally at the Accademia Chigiana in Sienne. These teaching positions will give him the opportunity to initiate his protégés into Italian classical musics, but also into foreign contemporary musics. He will also set up two concert societies, the Società Italiana di Musica Moderna (1916-1918) and the Corporazione delle Nuove Musiche (1924-1928). With these two concert societies dedicated to make recognize contemporary music in Italy, Casella succeeds in building up an impressive international network which will contribute to his vast plan of the Italian music’s development in a world context. Casella’s first intention is to give back its dignity to the Italian musical art. During the 1930’s, his wish to renovate the music of the peninsula corresponds to several facets of the cultural politic of Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime. Thus, Casella’s name will often be associated to the cultural achievements of the Regime, which seems in contradiction with the composer’s universalizing intentions.
Questa tesi cerca di approfondire le nozioni di nazionalismo e di cosmopolitismo come pure i legami che possono esistere tra di esse attraverso l'opera e la carriera di Casella. Il pianista e compositore italiano Alfredo Casella nacque a Torino in 1883. I conservatori italiani dell’epoca non potendo offrirgli un’adeguata formazione musicale, complementare a quella ricevuta presso la sua famiglia, Casella raggiunge la Francia. Studia al Conservatorio di Parigi fino a 1902, presso Gabriel Fauré e Louis Diémer. Nel corso di questi anni passati in Francia (1896-1915), Casella prende una parte attiva nella vita musicale parigina. Si produce in molti salotti, in molti concerti organizzati da società francesi (allo stesso tempo come pianista e come compositore). A traverso la sua ricchissima attività giornalistica, Casella s’impegna attivamente nei dibattiti e nelle polemiche in corso all’epoca nell’ambiente musicale francese. Durante questi diciannove anni francesi, Casella è esposto ai correnti nazionalisti che abitano i mezzi artistici francesi. Parallelamente alla fortissima espressione di questo nazionalismo, Casella sarà letteralmente bagnato nelle diverse influenze straniere (russi, tedesche, spagnole, ungheresi) allora presenti in questo vero punto di convergenza ch’è la Parigi del primo novecento. Queste numerose influenze (quelle di Stravinsky, Bartók, De Falla) si ritrovano tutte integrate nella sua opera, a tal punto che si chiama Casella il « camaleonte ». L’avvio della prima guerra mondiale forza Casella a tornare in Italia. La penisola è allora dominata dal melodramma e la produzione di musica strumentale è quasi inesistente. Casella si da la missione di rinnovare la musica strumentale e di combattere attivamente il melodramma italiani. Un tale rinnovamento musicale sarà possibile, secondo Casella, se i compositori italiani della nuova generazione giungono a rinunciare agli eccessi sentimentali del romanticismo. È ciò che Casella si sforzerà di fare nelle sue opere proprie. Ma non sarà sufficiente. I giovani compositori dovranno studiare le opere dei grandi maestri italiani del seicento e del settecento, integrando anche le innovazioni tecniche delle musiche contemporanee europee. Casella propone una rieducazione dei giovani compositori, ma anche del pubblico italiano. La pedagogia è, per Casella, la chiave che permetterà l’accesso al rinnovamento musicale. Primo, sarà professore di pianoforte all’Accademia Santa Cecilia, poi al Conservatorio di Roma e, finalmente all’Accademia Chigiana di Siena. Queste posizione di professore gli daranno l’occasione d’iniziare i suoi protetti alle musiche classiche italiane, ma anche alle musiche contemporanee straniere. Metterà anche in piedi due società di concerti, la Società Italiana di Musica Moderna (1916-1918) e la Corporazione delle Nuove Musiche (1924-1928). Con queste due società di concerti destinate a fare riconoscere le musiche contemporanee in Italia, Casella riesce a fabbricarsi un'impressionante rete internazionale che contribuirà al suo vasto piano di sviluppo della musica italiana in un ambiente mondiale. Lo scopo primo di Casella è di ridare la sua dignità all'arte musicale italiana. Negli anni 1930, la sua volontà di rinnovare la musica della penisola conviene con molti aspetti della politica culturale del regime fascista di Benito Mussolini. Così, il nome di Casella sarà spesso associato alle realizzazioni culturali portate dal regime, ciò che sembra contraddittorio con le intenzioni universalizzanti del compositore.

This thesis examines the function of music within different theories of nationalism and the appropriation of folk music within the genre of min’ge. Min’ge, a term in Chinese which directly translates to “folk songs”, has generally been defined as oral musical traditions. However, due to the increased politicization of popular music since the 1930s, the nature folk music has fundamentally changed, reflecting its new significance within Chinese nationalism. Through the years, min’ge has become more useful to promoting the goals of the state than representing the musical traditions of the many different ethnic groups in China. This transformation has established min’ge as an important extension of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) cultural policy, and the manipulation of folk music has asserted the CCP’s cultural hegemony. Ultimately, this cultural hegemony has important implications on Han-minority relations and highlights certain dynamics within Chinese nationalism. Despite its limited and distorted representation of minorities, however, the popularization of min’ge has also inspired minority musicians to reclaim their identities through music. Therefore, this paper explores both the cooptation and contestation of state-promoted identities through the medium of popular folk music.

Abstract Term coined in 1846 by the British antiquarian William John Thoms, apparently a translation of the German term Volks kunde, introduced in 1787. Thoms’s “good Saxon compound, Folklore” has achieved wide currency in the world’s languages (including prominently Romance and Slavic languages), though sometimes in conjunction or competition with more local coin ages. Thoms defined folklore essentially by enumerating some of its forms: “The manners, customs, observances, superstitions, ballads, proverbs, etc., of the olden time.” Folklore names both the traditional cultural forms and the discipline devoted to their study, though in recent years the term folkloristics has gained increasing currency for the latter. The concept of folklore emerged in the late eighteenth century as part of a unified vision of language, CULTURE, literature, and ideology in the service of romantic nationalism. For Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803), the German philosopher whose romantic conception of das Volk and folk tradition in forms all subsequent understandings of folklore, the possession of a common language was the touchstone of a people’s distinctiveness, the source that gave rise to and sustained their sense of themselves as a separate, unique, social entity; language embodied the character, the inner being, of a Volk.

This chapter looks into the issue of continuity in Old Norse folklore. It notes how many early scholars think that folklore was that cultural oddity that did not fit in or make sense in modern society. However, provable links to past practices, belief systems, codes of behavior, and linguistic usages offer data and insights into the study of understanding the past. The perceived continuous relationship to Nordic traditions presents the factors of communality, variation, continuity, and function. The texts also play as important psychological tools in the arsenal of the colonized late medieval Icelanders while supporting an embryonic sense of nationalism.

Abstract It is accepted that the word ranchera refers to a type of Mexican song, although sometimes it is an adjective that describes a character or a type of person. Ranchera comes from the word rancho, meaning a “cattle ranch, farm, or rural settlement.” A poor unsophisticated person may be called a ranchero or ranchera, implying he or she is from the countryside, the sticks, and a hick. In the context of Mexican folk music la canci6n ranchera is a love song, sung by the common folk, the peasants of the rural countryside. After the Mexican Revolution rancheras became more agreeable to the upper classes because of the movement toward a Mexican identity and nationalism and a rejection of European cultural values. The modern canci6n ranchera was made popular in Mexico City in the early 1950s by the songwriter Jose Alfredo Jimenez. The poetic structure of the ranchera is brief and simple, yet emotionally it is very intense. According to Ruben Campos as quoted by Gradante, “it is a moan and a sigh ... , the briefest form of composition and, as such, requires a greater intensity of expression than any other compositional form. It must say precisely what it means” (1983, 105). The themes of rancheras are love and unrequited love, but from the point of view of the ordinary common man.

Thirty paintings and sculptures from the National Museum of Bolivia, the Museum Arturo Borda, the National Museum of Ethnography and Folklore, the Marina Núñez del Prado Foundation, and the private collections of Mr. Fernando Romero and the BHN Foundation, and Mrs. Carmen Mazzi de Fernández.