Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: Russian folklore played an important role in the debates of the Slavophiles and Westernizers about national identity. Some Slavophiles adduced folksongs as evidence of the essential Christianity of the Russian people, while Westernizers, in good part, viewed folklore as a primitive stage in the development of a national literature that reflected the oppression and dejection of the masses. English-language studies of the Slavophile-Westernizer controversy contain at best passing mention of folklore. My essay hopes to partially remedy this situation by offering an overview of the role of folklore in the skirmishes between the early Slavophiles and Westernizers.
Author: Linda Ivanits
Institution: Pennsylvania State University
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2036643226