Western Folklore

Vol. 78 No. 2/3 – Spring/Summer, 2019

Articles

“I Know History”: Experience, Belief and Politics in the Post-Socialist Diaspora
Mariya Lesiv
 
ABSTRACT: Using the case study of new Canadians who support the annexation of Crimea by Russia, this paper shows how political convictions sometimes follow formation trajectories that are similar to those of experience-based spiritual beliefs. The paper contextualizes personal narratives of some Russians who once resided in republics of the former Soviet Union outside of Russia and who experienced social turmoil associated with the collapse of the Communist regime. It further provides comparative references to immigrants from the former Yugoslavia. KEYWORDS: Belief, Personal Narrative, Folklore and Politics

Agency and Patriarchy in Carpatho-Rusyn Werewolf Stories.
Elena Boudovskaia
 
ABSTRACT: This article investigates female agency in contemporary werewolf stories from a village in Transcarpathian Ukraine. I show that in stories told by women, female characters are mentally and verbally agentive. The patriarchal model of marriage is referenced by all female speakers; however, in certain werewolf stories agentive wives can get rid of their abusive husbands. The article shows the possibility of a gap between the generally accepted patriarchal model of marriage, and the speaker’s attitudes towards it. KEYWORDS: Rusyn Folklore, Werewolf, Agency, Patriarchy, Cultural Models.

Verbal Markets and Games in the eValuation of Myth, With an Appeal to Hermes, Aesop, and Virtual Worlds
Robert W. Guyker, Jr.
 
ABSTRACT: This paper treats the concepts of agora and agon as formative principles in the conception and valuation of myths. A discussion of the Greek deity Hermes and legendary Aesop serve as heuristic figures for theorizing myths and their function. Finally, John Miles Foley’s notion of three agoras is used as a framework for the analysis of oral, textual, and virtual arenas that exercise discrete, but contiguous transpositions of mythic discourse. KEYWORDS: myths, agoras, Aesopica, video games, virtual worlds

Review Essay

The First Book of Jewish Jokes: The Collection of L. M. Büschenthal
Reviewed by Ian Brodie

Reviews

Marsha MacDowell, Clare Luz, and Beth Donaldson, Quilts and Health
Reviewed by Deanna Allred

Gabrielle Anna Berlinger, Framing Sukkot
Reviewed by Violet Baron

Barbara Voorhies, Prehistoric Games of North American Indians Subarctic to Mesoamerica
Reviewed by Anna Beresin

Fernando Orejuela and Stephanie Shonekan, Black Lives Matter & Music: Protest, Intervention, Reflection
Reviewed by Aisha Gallion

Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Maria Tatar, The Annotated African American Folktales
Reviewed by Lesley Ham

Franz Rickaby with Gretchen Dykstra and James P. Leary, Pinery Boys: Songs and Songcatching in the Lumberjack Era
Reviewed by Gregory Hansen

Dahlia Schweitzer, Going Viral
Reviewed by Michelle W. Jones

Anthony Bak Buccitelli, City of Neighborhoods: Memory, Folklore, and Ethnic Place in Boston
Reviewed by Millie Rahn

Arlene M. Sánchez Walsh, Pentecostals in America
Reviewed by Ethan Sharp

Luisa Del Giudice, On Second Thought: Learned Women Reflect on Profession, Community, and Purpose
Reviewed by Kathleen Bond Williams