Ritual Otherworlds in Oral Traditions of Matrimony, War, and Death

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

How are lived realities and fantastic supernatural thought-worlds reshaped, reclassed, and revalued through oral traditions like folktales and legends? This panel explores the social roles of oral traditions—as zones of catharsis, dispute, satire, taboo, and dialectic—through which communities can work through anxieties, controversies, joy, and other communal emotions and affects. Playful Armenian folk songs about foxes may conceal older ritual material; Bulgarian vampire legends can become sites of freedom for discussing contentious social and sexual issues; and contemporary Ukrainian war discourse can be imbued with fairytale tropes of the dangerous under- and otherworld, casting war zones in resonant traditional patterns. Panelists challenge simplistic readings of verbal lore, revealing their embeddedness in social systems. This panel is sponsored by the Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Folklore Association (SEEFA).

Sub Unit

• Folklore Studies

Chair

• Elena E Boudovskaia, Georgetown U

Papers

• Saying 'I Do' to a Vampire: Cultural Memory in Bulgarian Vampire Courtship Lore - Viktoria Basham, Salisbury U

• Survivals of Armenian Wedding Ritual in Modern Children's Fox Songs - Nvard Khachatur Vardanyan, Yerevan State U (Armenia)

• The Locus of the Otherworld in Fairy Tales and the Narratives of the Russo-Ukrainian War - Olesia Naumovska, Taras Shevchenko National U of Kyiv (Ukraine)

Discussant

• Cammeron Girvin, Library of Congress