ACADEMIC JOURNAL
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ISSN 2542-1077 (Print) ISSN 1994-5973 (Online) |
Literary studies |
Ivanova L. I. | Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences |
Keywords: White Sea Karelia Karelians folklore runosongs tale-tellers witch doctors beliefs Old Believers biographies |
Summary: The article explores scholarly literature and the biographies of Karelian tale-tellers through the analysis
of historical and ethnographic data on the lifestyles and cultural and economic situation in the nineteenth-century White
Sea (Vienan) Karelia. The primary source of the research material were biographical stories of more than fi ve hundred
Karelian runosingers and witch doctors collected over a century-long period by forty Finnish folklore researchers.
The research subject and material encompass nineteenth-century folklore and ethnographic literature, the economic
situation in the said historical geographic province, the tale-tellers’ biographies, the daily routines and lifestyles of
rural Karelia, and some ancient beliefs as well as the Old Believers’ eff ects on them. The authors used the comparative
historical method and the contrastive method. The research novelty and relevance arise from the fact that the topic has
not been studied through the biographical stories of the nineteenth-century runosingers. The information contained in
the biographical stories of Karelian witch doctors and runosingers fully confi rms the conclusions previously made by
historians and ethnographers, but adds important details to the description of the spiritual life in the region. The study results in forming the image of Russia’s North Karelian region – one of the most agriculturally and economically backward territories, which, however, preserved the unique heritage of the runosinging folklore tradition and the folk culture of northern Karelians in general. |
Displays: 345; |