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SUMMARY:Jaroslav and the Taste for Folkloric Performances in Socialist Mon
 golia: an Ideal–Type Inspired from Fictional Literature  - Laurent Legra
 in (Social Anthropology)
DTSTART:20130522T110000Z
DTEND:20130522T130000Z
UID:TALK45130@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ruth Rushworth
DESCRIPTION:Dr. Laurent Legrain (Social Anthropology) presents at the CRAS
 SH Postdoctoral Research Seminar\n\nRegistration: http://www.crassh.cam.ac
 .uk/events/2342/\n\nAbstract\n\nHow could a novel be of any help to rethin
 k the folklorization process that was launched in socialist Mongolia in th
 e late 1950s? Jaroslav\, one of the main characters in Milan Kundera’s n
 ovel The Joke\, can be considered an ideal–type of the actions of the so
 cialist cultural activists\, who had been involved\, for more than forty y
 ears\, in the molding of new musical repertories as well as in the impleme
 ntation of new ways of enjoying songs and musical performances. As such th
 is ideal–type paves the way for the construction of an analytical approa
 ch to the attachment that people deeply felt\, and still feel\, to folklor
 ic songs. This attitude towards music is in sharp contrast with the most c
 ommon evaluation of representatives from international art institutions\, 
 who see in this taste for “folklore” a sadly enduring legacy of the So
 viet cultural policies\, a kind of deep aesthetical rut in which Mongolian
  rural people find themselves trapped. I will also address some epistemolo
 gical problems that inevitably arise when social scientists borrow materia
 l from fictional literature to pursue their own agendas.\n\nAbout Laurent 
 Legrain \n\nLaurent Legrain is a social anthropologist whose areas of rese
 arch cover the field of the anthropology of art as well as issues related 
 to cultural transmission. He joined the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Un
 it of the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge
  in the beginning of this year as a Wiener-Anspach Foundation’s Fellow. 
 His postdoctoral project (2012-2016) focuses on the role played by the emo
 tional attachment to objects and practices in cultural transmission.
LOCATION:CRASSH\, Alison Richard Building\, 7 West Road\, Cambridge\, CB3 
 9DT
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