ARTICLES

Polish Folklore Studies at the End of the Twentieth Century

Anna Brzozowska-Krajka, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University. Lublin, Poland

Contemporary Polish folklore studies scarcely resemble their original fonn of almost 200

years ago. Amateur collector-enthusiasts have been replaced by experienced scholars (mainly scholars

of language and literature) who are supported by universities and other scholarly institutions. Besides

old and strong academic centers, such as Warsaw, Wroclaw, or Cracow, there are also new ones where

folklore studies have become a university discipline (e.g., in Lublin, Silesia, LodZ, and Opole).

Above all, the scope of the discipline and the concept of "folklore" have changed so that its

research methods have become quite different. As Czeslaw Hernas has rightly observed, the

definition of folklore is changeable and is determined by both research experience and cultural

developments. The invariant international core of the definition and the variables reflecting ethnic

differences among cultures are equally important in the form which the definition of folklore assumes.

Finally, two trends have appeared in postwar Polish studies of folklore - they tend either to broaden

or to narrow the subject of research. The first trend involves the philological approach to folklore as a

verbal art (synonymous with the concepts of oral literature or traditional folk literature as opposed to

the so-called new folk literature, i.e. peasant writing, amateur writing, or the so-called peasant

movement in belles-lettres). Until the 1980s, in most countries, including those of the fonner Soviet

bloc, this approach was represented by folklorists educated in linguistics and the history or theory of

literature. The other trend was the anthropological approach to folklore studies. It began to grow in

popularity at about the same time as the philological school. While both had a "textocentric"

approach, focused on the analysis of verbal acts, the anthropological school tended to broaden the

scope of inquiry to include non-verbal phenomena connected to the activities of the peasant social

group. This school wanted to see the entire range of peasant activity as "lore." This approach had

earlier been ascribed to Anglo-Saxon folklorists for whom "folklore" was synonymous with "folklife."

The broadest, colloquial meaning of the tenD "folklore" - as a synonym of rusticity popularized by

the mass media - remained outside the sphere of scholarly study.

The change in Polish folklore studies was also connected with a broadening of the term "folk,"

whit:h. in traditional Polish studies of folklore, was associated only with peasants. This broadening of

the field of research was accomplished by the first journal for the study of Polish folklore - Literatura

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Ludowa - which was originally published from 1957 to 1968 and resmned publication in 1972. The

journal's editors proposed to investigate not only the folklore of rural environments, but also that of

various groups of townspeople, both traditional and modern. The scope of study also included

borderline topics such as the relationships between verbal text and nonverbal fonns of expression. i.e.,

the social fonns of a text's "life" and functions. The journal continues its forward-looking approach

today, reflecting the transfonnations of Polish society. In this journal, topics such as orality, once

regarded as an obligatory feature offolldore, have more and more often been replaced by literacy.

Fonns of expression are frequently authorial (not anonymous), although they are still governed by

traditional roles. The broad field of research includes community folklore (e.g., of children, students,

or prisoners), and occupational folklore (e.g., of potters or sailors). Today, these kinds offolklore

occur on the level of symbolic culture or of life in a technological society, rather than on the level of

social institutions and organizations. Traditional folklore with its fonns of psycho-social expression

(traditional folklore vs.literary genre studies or literary fonns offolklore), has been replaced by new

fonns of textual activity that are viable in modem times: e.g., urban legends, sensational stories,

various fonns of humor, different kinds of epigrams, as well as children's ~ks of wise sayings,

albums, votive books, and graffiti.

Considering the specific endeavors and scholarly accomplishments of contemporary Polish

folklore that is philologically or anthropologically oriented, we can follow Sulima and point out four

main approaches. The first approach has developed out of historical-philological studies. It deals

with the systematization offolklore, the history offolklore studies, and literary-folklore comparative

studies. It has been developing in Poland since the second half of the nineteenth century. The

preeminent achievement of this approach is the comparative studies conducted by Julian

KrzyZanowski, who is recognized as the father of modem Polish folkloristics. The so-called ''Warsaw

school" now consists mainly of Krzyzanowski's disciples.

The second approach, represented primarily by the "Opole school" associated with Dorota

Simonides, is connected with the study of folklore as a kind of social diagnosis and originates from

anthropological assumptions. It also focuses on collecting regional materials and editing texts, on

issues of cultural borderlands, on small local communities, on orality and literacy in the context of

mass culture, and on folklorism. Its activities have done much to popularize folklore.

The third approach treats folklore as part of culture and studies it from the viewpoint of the

theory of culture: it emphasizes problems in the historical semantics of culture and recognizes that

historical, sociological, and philological procedures and sources are complementary in nature. This

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approach is inspired by cultural anthropology. It is associated with the "Wroclaw school" created by

Czesmw Hemas with the journal Literatura Ludowa which he edits. The "Wrocmw school" exerts a

strong influence on other Polish academic centers.

The fourth approach is devoted exclusively to the oral character of folklore. It considers

problems of language stereotypes, the poetics of the oral text, and the linguistic image of the world.

This approach is represented by the "Lublin school," created by Jerzy Ba.rtmiDski, and it focuses on

ethnolinguistics. Since 1989, this center has published the periodical EtnolinfWistyka which has been

a forum for the exchange of scholarly ideas.

The present day study of Polish folklore is still seeking an identity. Is it a branch of

ethnography, of the theory of literature, or of the theory of culture? Its interdiscipIinary character is

emphasized more and more often in relation to its research techniques. This also results from an

awareness of the heterogeneous nature of folkloric texts which have to be considered in all of their

communicative components. Therefore, we need to decode the layers of tradition through complex

analysis and to deal, not only with verbal factors, as advocated by the philological approach, but also

with the complete folklore message, as in the anthropological tendency. (cf. Anna

Brzozowska-Krajka: Polish Traditional Folklore: The Magjc ofTim~). Through an interpretation of

deep structure, we arrive at the kinds of synthetic formulations that every field of knowledge requires.

Thus crossing boundaries between disciplines is becoming a common practice and the subject of

folklore, anthropologically understood, integrates various domains, methods, aDd theories of the

humanities.

Among the research postulates and prognoses for the future, one thing is especially important:

the need for developing comparative studies which would apply various proced~s and would go

.b~ond simple juxtapositions of similarities with complementary lists of differences. We need work

that deals with surface fluctuations and gradually shifts emphasis towards deep structures. Recently,

many Central and East European folklorists have been recognizing the necessity of conducting this

kitn ;)f study within Slavic culture. Development of new comparative structures opens up vast and

attractive research perspectives, which, however, require reliable syntheses and detailed investigations

of materials. Analytic procedures of this kind would bring Polish folklore studies into the mainstream

of European and world humanist thought Th~ would also enable delineation of the general

mechanisms governing the development of culture, as well as of national versions and variants that

develop in various culturo-religious zones, e.g., the spheres of Western vs. Eastern Slavic Christianity

or the nature of acculturation processes.

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Shifting the focus from the "archaeology" offolklore to contemporary forms of its existence

is related to the notion of the "diagnostic study offolklore," that is, to Sulima's idea about a new

outlook on contemporaiy culture viewed in tenns of orality and secondary orality. Investigation of

such folklore-creating situations as strikes, pilgrimages, parliamentary elections, propaganda

campaigns, socia-political scandals, sports events, fashion, tourism, or advertising, promises new

interpretative possibilities for a folklorist. As in the case of comparative studies, such possibilities

may also reveal universal mental structures and common patterns of living in the modem world,

where, despite powerful unification processes, there are still many ethno-cultural differences.

This presentation of the Polish study of folklore is merely an outline of the discipline. Its

broad scope and complexity can be grasped only by looking at individual research and at the

achievements of Polish folklorists, who are open to scholarly communication with both Eastern and

Western Europe, as well as with folklorists world-wide. Finally, it should be emphasized that Polish

folklore studies have always been free from ideological distortions. Although they constitute a part of

Slavic studies, they have their own distinct features and unique material, as well as their own

theoretical and methodological character.

(Translated by Agnieszka Monies-Mizera)

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