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Narrative droodles as humorous miniature fairy tales?
No full textThe article is based on the online database “Estonian Droodles” (available at http://www.folklore.ee/Droodles", containing 7,200 droodles collected from 1963 up to the present), which includes a number of longer visual narrative riddles (about 430 text variants, 79 types, i.e. different droodles). The question component of the so-called ‘narrative droodles’, or ‘droodle tales’, is a verbally transmitted tale visualised by means of a pictorial image. The performer of a droodle sketches the image during narration and the story ends with a punch line question.Among narrative droodles there are variants built on a specific scene and plot, which may even resemble a miniature fairy tale. The extremely condensed plot centres on only one or two characters. For the purpose of distancing from reality, a princess, king, prince, witch, Little Red Riding Hood, etc. may be chosen as protagonists; the more popular characters are represented as the following character pairs — girl/boy, brother/sister, woman/man, grandmother/grandfather. The narrative droodles are not comparable to the majority of fairy tales in length, but the fast pace of modern life seems to favour the use of such illustrated narrative riddles. An analysis of the structural composition and function of narrative droodles of this type reveals the shared common features with the structure and function of fairy tales
Estonian riddles as a folklore genre in a changing cultural context
Get PDFVäitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsioone.Doktoritöö koosneb teoreetilisest katuspeatükist ja kuuest artiklist. Folkloristlikus uurimuses on analüüsitud ja mõtestatud eesti mõistatusi kogu oma liigilises mitmekesisuses kui traditsioonidel põhinevat loomeprotsessi, mille sisulised tähendused ja tõlgendused on tugevalt seotud sotsiokultuurilise keskkonnaga. Artiklite põhifookuses on mõistatuste tänapäeval elujõulised allvormid (keerdküsimused, liitsõnamängud, lühendmõistatused, piltmõistatused jne), mis erinevad oma sisult ja vormilt oluliselt vanematest traditsioonilistest mõistatustest. Arhiivimaterjali põhjal loodud žanritüpoloogilised internetiandmebaasid kujutavad töös meediumit, mis võimaldavad mõistatusi vaadelda eri ajastuid siduva dünaamilise žanrina. Mõistatuste käsitlemisel on lähtutud peamiselt folkloori kontekstikesksest teooriast, milles kultuurikontekst moodustab folkloori tajumise ja tõlgendamise raamistiku, sisaldades teavet esitajate ühiste teadmiste, nende käitumuslike tõekspidamiste, uskumussüsteemi, keeleliste võimaluste, ajaloolise teadlikkuse, eetiliste ja õiguslike normide kohta. Töös demonstreeritakse mõistatuste alaliikides toimunud muutusi ja näidatakse, kuidas ühiskondlik-kultuuriline (sh poliitiline, etniline, majanduslik ja tehnoloogiline) ümbrus mõjutab pidevalt žanri vormilist ja sisulist koostist. Ühtlasi analüüsitakse mõistatusžanri ja huumori kui inimomase kultuuriuniversaali vahekordi, samuti on tähelepanu all mõistatuste esitusviisidega seotud multimodaalsed ja multimeedialised tahud.The Doctoral dissertation, consisting of a theoretical introduction and six publications, is a folklorist research analysing and rethinking the Estonian riddles within their genre-wise diversity and tradition-based creation process, the meanings and interpretations of which are closely associated with the socio-cultural environment. The main focus of the articles is on the contemporary, viable sub-genres of riddles, (conundrums, compound puns, abbreviation riddles, droodles, etc.), significantly different from earlier traditional riddles in content and form. Genre-typological databases, established on the basis of archive material, act as a medium in the dissertation, enabling the observation of riddles as a dynamic genre uniting different eras. The treatment of the riddles in the thesis mainly proceeds from the contextual theory of folklore, wherein the cultural context forms a framework for the perception and interpretation of folklore, containing data with regard to the common knowledge of the performers, their behavioural convictions, religious system, linguistic capabilities, knowledge of history, ethical and legal norms. The thesis presents the changes which have taken place in the sub-genres of riddles, and shows how socio-cultural (incl. political, economic and cultural) surroundings continuously affect the form-wise and essence-wise composition of abbreviations. The analysis also concerns the relationships between the riddle genre and humour, as a cultural universal intrinsic of human beings, the focus is also on the multimodal and multimedia-related facets associated with the performative side of riddles
Soolisuse esitamine Eesti grafitis ja tänavakunstis / Representing of gender in Estonian graffiti and street art
No full textArtiklis on tähelepanu all sooline aspekt grafitis ja tänavakunstis kui konteksti- ja kommunikatsioonikeskses kultuuriilmingus. Põhiküsimused on, kuidas soolisus ja sooline kommunikatsioon grafitis avaldub ning milline on grafiti soolisustatud esteetika. Analüüs osutab soolistele klišeedele grafitis ja näitab stereotüüpseid arusaamu laiemas sotsiokultuurilises tähenduses. Teisalt toob uurimus esile ka grafiti ja tänavakunsti rolli sooliste stereotüüpide vaidlustajana ja uudsete tähenduste esiletoojana. Uurimus põimib grafiti ja tänavakunsti käsitlused soouurimusliku lähenemisviisiga ning kasutab uurimismeetodina grafiti ja tänavakunsti kui efemeerse kultuuriilmingu kontekstualiseerimist vaataja perspektiivist. Artikli allikmaterjali moodustavad põhiliselt aastail 2010–2020 jäädvustatud grafitid, mis on koondatud internetiandmebaasi „Grafiti andmebaas“.
Graffiti and street art belong inseparably to the present-day urban space and their various sociocultural meanings are related to different subcultural layers.
The involvement of graffiti and street art in urban space refers to the fact that these are informal ways of depiction which have sometimes been taken to be vandalism. On the other hand, graffiti are a democratic, open and dialogical way of representation, as everyone can make changes in them and add their own commentaries. Graffiti and street art reveal power relations in society, that is why they have also been seen as the undermining of public authority. Such opinion is related to the specific character of graffiti and street art as non-institutional art.
Western researchers have associated graffiti and street art with the male subculture, with an area where male identities are created. Although women have in recent years become more visible among street artists and they have also introduced the so-called feminine subjects, this has not changed the general image of graffiti as the male subculture. Differing from Western countries, graffiti and street art have been relatively less studied in Estonia and no attention have been paid at all to the gender aspect of graffiti and street art.
The article focusses on the study of gender relevance in Estonian graffiti and street art. The key questions here are how gender (or femininity and masculinity) and gender communication are represented in graffiti and how the aspects of gender aesthetics are revealed.
As its sources, the article uses the examples of graffiti, collected in Estonia in 2010-2020 and recorded in the internet database “Grafiti andmebaas” (www.folklore.ee/Graffiti). The database contains also different of graffiti-related metadata, such as the context, the time of its making, the author (when known), etc., including, all in all, about 700 different records of graffiti.
The database does not have much information about the authors; therefore, we could not concentrate on the analysis of the differences in the graffiti and street art created by men and women. Our research method was to interpret graffiti and street art from the position of the viewer. In a way, this approach can be associated with visual autoethnography, analysing visual artefacts and the archive containing photos of these artefacts (see Hamdy 2015, 69). The authors’ practical observations and intuitive interpretations of graffiti also play a role in this approach.
We analyse graffiti as a mix of visual and textual representation where both elements carry some important meaning; however, very often, a piece of graffiti is formed either by an image or a text only.
Analysing the graffiti and street art database, we discovered that gender is in some way or other expressed in one fourth of the works of graffiti and street art included in it. We analysed how gender is represented in texts and images, how femininity and masculinity are represented, whether the works express masculine or feminine points of view, and how all this is done by the artists.
On the basis of works collected in the database we can conclude that a large part of graffiti and street art often represents the masculine point of view (most of the quotations and visual images are related to well-known men, but very few of them refer to well-known women). This could possibly indicate that the majority of authors are men and that men continue to be more visible both in society and in culture which, in its turn, is again reflected in graffiti. The greater visibility of men in society and culture is related to the greater authority of men and masculinity. On the other hand, femininity is often represented in stereotypes, e.g., by sexualising the female body. Among other aspects, the graffiti recorded in the database reflects the gender stereotypes which are widely spread and accepted in society, such as the notion of clean, neat and sober women, while men are seen as influential public figures (e.g., politicians), and masculinity is related to stereotypical behaviour, such as the consumption of alcohol. To counterbalance the masculine stereotypes, there are some exceptional hints on the so-called soft masculinity, and a few images where men and women are represented as equal partners.
However, we can say that women are also visible as the authors of graffiti, as it can be seen in the emergence of new perspectives as well as in the diversification of the visual way of representation in graffiti and street art. Graffiti and street art created by women, such as works made by MinajaLydia, highlight the positive experience of being a woman, which can be seen as an attempt of increasing the visibility and authority of women in public space.
Regarding the gender aspect, a certain amount of graffiti and street art can be considered neutral, but the possible gender interpretations may depend on the viewer in the role of the active creator of meaning.
 
Swearing: Dissolution into NothingnessPreklinjanje: izničenje v praznino
No full textIn this study we will comparatively analyse swearing material form Slovenian and Estonian language in order to show the lexical and structural similarities/differences between swearing and incantations present in the material as to argue that swearing is not only a manner to give voice to taboos, but is similar with incantations. The basic premise underlying the analysis is the existence of the “go to X” formula found both in the material and in the two genres analysed. Place X is the place of origin, non-existence or chaos, where the unwanted is sent to. There are more than 50 different variants of “go to X” we can detect in both Estonian and Slovenian language; besides we consider the phrases which carry the idea to negate someone to somewhere but they are in different formulation
Staranje v pregovorih: Primerjalna analiza estonskih in slovenskih pregovorov
No full textFrom a methodological and folkloristic perspective, the article explores attitudes toward older people and aging in Slovene and Estonian proverbs based on archival paremiological material collected from the second half of the 19th century to the present day.
Various aspects of old age and ageing are also reflected in the rich tradition of proverbs. As can be seen from the examined material, proverbs related to the elderly and to ageing reflect established cultural stereotypes or attitudes that are full of controversy and ambivalence. On the one hand, there are many negative stereotypes that emphasize the vulnerability and needs of the elderlz and portray them as a passive group in need of help. This stereotype is extremely common in proverbs, where young people are portrayed as capable of learning and adapting to change, while the elderly are not. On the other hand, some proverbs reflect a highly positive attitude towards older people, suggesting that they deserve respect and are to be regarded as full members of society. The other extreme approach is active ageing, which suggests that the solution lies in older people acting young. The proverbs analysed stem from two different languages (Estonian and Slovene), two different language families (Uralic and Indo-European), and two different regions of Europe (northern and southern), but their embedded stereotypes and messages are similar – emphasizing physical decline, wisdom, mental decline, grey hair, walking canes as well asrespect. If the understanding of universal signs and stereotypes of old age in proverbs often varies across cultures, it can also be argued that it is often actually rather similar, especially in countries that were historically connected to and influenced by the same “centre,” i.e., the historical area of German culture in the case of Estonian and Slovene.Članek z metodološkega in folklorističnega vidika raziskuje odnos do starejših in staranja v slovenskih in estonskih pregovorih na podlagi arhivskega paremiološkega gradiva, zbranega v drugi polovici 19. stoletja pa vse do danes. Različni vidiki starosti in staranja se odražajo tudi v bogatem izročilu pregovorov. Kot je razvidno iz kategorij, pregovori, povezani s starejšimi ljudmi in staranjem, predstavljajo uveljavljene kulturne stereotipe ali odnose, ki so polni kontroverznosti in ambivalentnosti. Po eni strani obstaja veliko negativnih stereotipov, ki poudarjajo ranljivost in potrebe starejših ljudi ter jih prikazujejo kot pasivno in odvisno skupino. Ta stereotip je globoko zakoreninjen v pregovorih, kjer so mladi prikazani kot sposobni učenja in prilagajanja spremembam, starejši pa ne. Po drugi strani nekateri pregovori odražajo zelo pozitivno stališče do starejših, saj nakazujejo, da si starejši zaslužijo spoštovanje in so polnopravni člani družbe, oz. kažejo na spodbujanje t. i. aktivnega staranja, tj, da starejši ljudje delujejo mladostno in aktivno. Analizirani pregovori so iz dveh različnih jezikov (estonski in slovenski), dveh različnih jezikovnih družin (uralski in indoevropski) in dveh različnih regij Evrope (severne in južne), vendar so si njihovi vgrajeni stereotipi in sporočila podobni – poudarjanje fizičnega upada, modrosti, duševnega upada, sivih las, hoje, palice in spoštovanja so le nekateri ključni izrazi, ki izhajajo iz analize. Če se razumevanje univerzalnih znakov in stereotipov starosti, obravnavanih v pregovorih, razlikuje glede na kulturo, lahko trdimo, da je razumevanje znakov starosti v Evropi precej podobno, zlasti v državah, ki so bile v preteklosti povezane z istim »centrom« in so bile pod njegovim vplivom, tj. nemško kulturno-zgodovinsko okolje
Variation in folklore and language/ Edited by Piret Voolaid and Saša Babič.
No full textIncludes bibliographical references.Variation is a universal phenomenon permeating language, culture, and entire worldviews. This book analyses issues related to both specific and common variations in folklore and language as signifiers of culture and worldview. The articles here are dedicated to different genres and forms, including spoken and written language, dancing and singing, and festivities, and involve different aspects of variation. Variation is conceptualised here as the main basis of folklore dynamics and a major issue of typology. A significant part of the volume is dedicated to variations of myths and motifs, creat.1 online resource (xxix, 205 pages
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