Engendering Song: Singing and Subjectivity at Prespa Albanian Weddings

Abstract

For Prespa Albanians, both at home in Macedonia and in the diaspora, the most significant events of any year are wedding ceremonies. During days and weeks of festivities, wedding celebrants interact largely through singing, defining and renegotiating the structure of their social world and establishing a profound cultural touchstone for Prespa communities around the world. This account of Prespa weddings combines photographs, song texts and recordings of the wedding music. Jane Sugarman focuses her account on notions of gender identity, demonstrating the capacity of singing to generate and transform relations of power within Prespa society. The study offers a considerable contribution to the analysis of music and gender, music in diaspora cultures, and the social constitution of self and subjectivity.