<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The article seeks to illuminate the ideologically motivated circumstances of Latvian folklore studies during the period of unconditional Soviet totalitarianism. With the strengthening of the Soviet occupation regime in Latvia in the late 1940s, many interwar folklorists became victims of ideologically motivated disdain and subsequent career limitation. ‘Bourgeois’ scholarship and the methods applied in folklore studies during the interwar period were denounced and recognised as harmful to the new Soviet order. The central part of the article presents a case study of one individual folklorist of the time, Anna Bērzkalne (1891–1956). Both increasing criticism of Bērzkalne’s folklore research approach (the historical–geographical method) and her efforts to accommodate the requirements of the Soviet regime have been analysed.</p></abstract>

The article seeks to illuminate the ideologically motivated circumstances of Latvian folklore studies during the period of unconditional Soviet totalitarianism. With the strengthening of the Soviet occupation regime in Latvia in the late 1940s, many interwar folklorists became victims of ideologically motivated disdain and subsequent career limitation. ‘Bourgeois’ scholarship and the methods applied in folklore studies during the interwar period were denounced and recognised as harmful to the new Soviet order. The central part of the article presents a case study of one individual folklorist of the time, Anna Bērzkalne (1891–1956). Both increasing criticism of Bērzkalne’s folklore research approach (the historical–geographical method) and her efforts to accommodate the requirements of the Soviet regime have been analysed.

A Folklorist in the Soviet Spotlight

Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

{"article-title":"A Folklorist in the Soviet Spotlight"}

The article seeks to illuminate the ideologically motivated circumstances of Latvian folklore studies during the period of unconditional Soviet...

A Folklorist in the Soviet Spotlight

Published Online: Dec 05, 2019

Page range: 16 - 32

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jef-2019-0011

Keywords
history of folkloristics, sovietisation, historical–geographical method, Anna Bērzkalne, Latvia

© 2019 Rita Treija, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

A Folklorist in the Soviet Spotlight

Published Online: Dec 05, 2019

Page range: 16 - 32

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jef-2019-0011

Keywordshistory of folkloristics, sovietisation, historical–geographical method, Anna Bērzkalne, Latvia

© 2019 Rita Treija, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
history of folkloristics, sovietisation, historical–geographical method, Anna Bērzkalne, Latvia