Kule Folklore Centre Celebrates Book Launch

On March 9, 2008, the Kule Centre for Ukrainian and Canadian Folklore was pleased to celebrate the launch of Slavic Folklore: A Handbook, written by Centre member and Kule Chair of Ukrainian Ethnography, Natalie Kononenko.  Kononenko came to the University of Alberta in 2004 when the founder of the Folklore Centre Bohdan Medwidsky arranged for an endowed chair sponsored through the generosity of Peter and Doris Kule. 

Medwidsky, currently Professor Emeritus at the University of Alberta, began the formal proceedings of the book launch by talking about promoting Ukrainian folklore scholarship and recruiting Kononenko.  His remarks were followed by a presentation by Andriy Nahachewsky, Huculak Chair of Ukrainian Folklore and Kule Centre Director, who spoke about the history of the program and its many accomplishments.  The Centre has grown rapidly, Nahachewsky said, and this growth is gaining momentum, both through the work of its members and the generous support of its sponsors, like Peter and Doris Kule.  The Centre boasts the Bohdan Medwidsky Ukrainian Folklore Archive, the largest repository of Ukrainian folklore outside Ukraine.  It is home to Folklorica, the journal of the Slavic and East European Folklore Association and a major international publication in the field of folklore.  This journal is edited by Kononenko.  The Centre produces a number of websites, including the new teaching materials website aimed at students in the Ukrainian bilingual program.  This site is run by Peter Holloway and Yanina Vihovska.  Graduate students in the folklore program conduct interesting research in Ukrainian and Ukrainian Canadian folklore. Posters highlighting their work were on display at the book launch. 

Nahachewsky’s remarks were followed by a short speech by Kononenko who showed how folklore is important to the entire course of human life and how it helps adjusting to immigration to a new land.  Kononenko’s book on Slavic folklore seeks to capture some of the magic of this field and to provide examples from all areas of the Slavic world.  Kononenko thanked the many people who helped her with the Slavic traditions with which she is less familiar.

The formal program was followed by a book signing.  Slavic Folklore: A Handbook begins with a discussion of the Slavs, who they were, where the lived, and how they migrated to the areas where they are now found.  There are examples of early lore, the stories and songs that we know from manuscripts.  This is followed by definitions of the forms of folklore, verbal culture such as songs, rhymes, tales, ritual culture such as weddings, and material culture such as houses and costume.  Examples of all these folklore forms appear in the next chapter of the book.  This is followed by a discussion of folklore scholarship in the various parts of the Slavic world, including North America.  The book then offers examples of folklore used in operas, paintings, written literature, and other elite culture. A lengthy bibliography, including a list of Internet sources, concludes the volume.  Kononenko hopes to follow this book with an English language collection of Ukrainian epic poetry, dumy.