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Deborah Cahalen Schneider, Being Goral: Identity Politics and 
Globalization in Postsocialist Poland (SUNY series in National 
Identities).  Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2006.  211 
pp.  Bibliography.  Index.  $60.00 (cloth).  ISBN 0791466558. 

 
Zywiec, a town in the Goral region of Poland, is the location of a 

large annual folk festival that showcases Goral music and dance, as well 
as Goral crafts.  It attracts tourists and folk performers from Europe and 
beyond.  But the folklore of this region is not what interests Schneider 
and she does not cite the work of Cooley on Goral music (Making Music 
in the Polish Tatras: Tourists, Ethnographers, and Mountain Musicians. 
Indiana University Press, 2005).  Rather, the author focuses on politics.  
She seeks to show how the major players in post-socialist Zywiec use 
folklore, which she subsumes under the category of “traditionalism,” to 
advance their political and economic agendas.   

The author makes a number of cogent observations.  Nationalism is 
not as important a factor as once thought, she argues.  Certainly in 
Zywiec, the Polish government has become a minor player and town 
residents see themselves as Goral rather than Polish.  This is partially due 
to historical circumstances: the Goral region has been dominated by a 
succession of powers and the concept of nation-state is not central to the 
identity of its residents.  The collapse of the Soviet-era centralized 
government has contributed to this outlook.  It has meant the loss of 
guaranteed jobs and many social perquisites such as free daycare, 
medical clinics, and sports and social facilities.  To fill this void, 
Zywiecers have either turned inward and relied on local networks to 
provide needed services, or gone global, seeking to attract outside capital 
and to make their businesses part of international corporations.  The 
conflict between the two approaches to the post-socialism dilemma is 
also a class conflict, the author contends.  Soviet rule did not eliminate 
classes.  The pre-war elite maintained their status in the Soviet era, not 
on the basis of financial power, but as arbiters of culture and, to a certain 
extent, as a force in opposition to socialism.  With privatization, the pre-
war elite have reacquired their property, usually small local businesses, 
and thus gained economic clout.  They are community leaders who favor 
a local solution to Zywiec needs because that is the one from which they 
would profit the most.  Their opposition is what the author calls the neo-
capitalists, people who favor an international approach: attracting outside 
investment that would make Zywiec businesses part of large 
corporations, creating jobs and bringing in new capital.  Neo-capitalists 

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present themselves to the community as those best able to represent 
Zywiec on the global arena and try to build their power on this basis.  In 
trying to advance their respective positions, both groups use 
traditionalism.  The pre-war elite use Goral costumes, songs, dances, 
crafts to show that Zywiec is part of a unique regional culture.  In their 
view, folklore shows that the Goral region is a unit which should remain 
insular and solve its problems internally.  For neo-capitalists, folklore is 
a commodity, something to be sold, whether to attract tourists or as a 
corporate logo; it is a way for Zywiec to market itself.  Non-elites also 
play a role in politics, albeit a small one.  They exercise agency by 
supporting the vision of either the pre-war elite or the neo-capitalists.   

In addition to showing that nationalism is not an important factor in 
all adjustments to post-Soviet life, this book makes a number of other 
contributions.  Schneider looks at a rural area.  She does not follow other 
scholars to urban centers, the seats of wealth and power, and she is able 
to show that the shock therapy that has worked well in cities does not 
facilitate a transition to a market economy in rural areas.  She thus 
expands our understanding of the struggles of East Europe.  The author 
offers case studies.  She looks at two families adjusting to post-Soviet 
life and two businesses, the brewery in Zywiec, which was bought by 
Heineken and a metal factory that was also privatized and 
internationalized, but managed to retain pre-capitalist ideals.  She thus 
offers a valuable glimpse into the lives of real people.  There are 
annoying features to this book also.  It is quite repetitive.  Schneider tells 
us what she is about to do, then she does it, then she tells us what she has 
done.  Additional case studies would have served this study better than 
such repetition.  All in all, the book does a good job at expanding our 
understanding of post-Soviet life and of the processes of social change.   

Still a study such as this should give folklorists pause.  Are people 
concerned with money and power only?  Is folklore but a tool in the 
struggle to improve one’s lot in life?  Do people not sing songs for the 
sheer pleasure of singing?  Is Goral style furniture a tourist gimmick 
only?  Can it not be used because it is aesthetically pleasing?   We would 
all agree that the aesthetic dimension is an essential part of being human, 
yet there has been precious little attention to it, especially when looking 
at life in the post-socialist world.  This is understandable.  The Soviet 
Union was THE political antagonist in the imagination of the Western 
world.  It is difficult not see its remnants in terms of power relations.  
But we diminish all humans by showing them as primarily concerned 
with power and money.  People do strive for beauty.  Folklorists, who 



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used to study the artistic creations of the common man, what Oring calls 
lore, should lead the way in refocusing on art and its aesthetic function 
(“Folk or Lore: The Stake in Dichotomies,” Journal of Folklore 
Research, Vol. 43, No. 3, 2006, pp. 205-218).  They should show that 
folklore is not sung or told, drawn or carved, danced or acted solely to 
negotiate one’s position vis-à-vis one’s neighbor.   Attention to the 
spiritual dimension needs to be brought back to folklore scholarship and 
post-Soviet studies.   

 
Natalie Kononenko  
University of Alberta 

FOLKLORICA 2007, Vol. XII