New Book: Mapping the History of Folklore Studies: Centers, Borderlands and Shared Spaces

At the end of April Cambridge Scholars Publishing released a collection of articles prepared by ILFA Mapping the History of Folklore Studies: Centers, Borderlands and Shared Spaces (ed. by Dace Bula and Sandis Laime). Articles are based on papers presented during the conference dedicated to the 90^th anniversary of the Archives of Latvian Folklore which was held in Riga in October 2014.

The collection of articles provides rich and diverse insights into the historical dynamics of folkloristic thought with its shifting geographies, shared spaces, centres and borderlands. By focusing on intellectual collaboration and sharing, the volume also reveals the limitations, barriers and boundaries inherent in scholarship and scholarly communities.

Folklore scholars from Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, and the USA reflect upon a range of related questions. To what extent and in what sense can folklore studies be regarded as a shared field of knowledge? Which lines of authority have held it together and what forces have led to segmentation? How have the hierarchies of intellectual centres and peripheries shifted over time? Do national or regional styles of scholarly practice exist in folkloristics? The authors pay attention to individual personalities, the politics and economics of scholarship, and forms of communication as meaningful contexts for discussing the dynamics of folklore theory and method.

Last time modified: 03.05.2017 13:42:57