EVENT TIME AND INTERPRETATION TIME: ANALYSIS OF THE INTERACTION OF TIMES

Abstract

1. Introduction It is characteristic of oral folklore that a text is adapted to the situation where it is performed. This gives folklore text its flexibility. The actual performance of oral folklore also establishes the moment of time. While the text itself cannot be changed, it is the time of performance that will influence further interpretations of the text. In this article I will observe one such connection between the time of event and the time of interpretation, by using the example of an educational film made in the 1950s about pre-modern wedding traditions. I will show how, in spite of the pursuits of the film's authors, modern interpretations amplify not only the timeless element of folk traditions, but also the actual time of the filming. The additional film-related sources and the relevant research help to more specifically understand and perceive the interrelated connection of times. For theoretical background, it is important to emphasise the changes that took place in folklore studies in the second half of the 20th century, including the change in the definition of folklore. The film in question was created during a period when the research of folklore was focusing on objects. It means that it was possible to categorize texts (for instance, a description of wedding traditions) thus enabling their collection or recording without affecting the understanding about the specific subject matter. When researchers started to regard folklore as a specific type of communication (see, for instance, the works of Dan Ben-Amos from the 1970s), the performance situation began influencing the concept of folklore. In his article Toward a Definition of Folklore in Context, Dan BenAmos showed that folklore acted as a communicative process in the cultural context, as opposed to the earlier concept that regarded folklore as a set of certain phenomena (songs, stories, traditions, etc.) (Ben-Amos 1971). The filmmakers drew a distinction between the wedding traditions that were being described and the daily life of people who knew and carried these traditions forward. (1) It can be claimed that people's traditions and their modern-day activities were handled as two essentially isolated phenomena in the film. But when folklore is regarded in the cultural setting as part of this system, the main focus will not be on individual cultural phenomena, but on persons and their actions. (2) Therefore, people interpreting the film today tend to focus less on ancient wedding traditions and more on the community acting in the given time and space. I have analysed the film on two levels: first, the film's reception by students today, including aspects related to the past, rhetoric and folkloristic principles, and, second, new contexts in the interpretation process that I created by including film-related materials and by monitoring folkloristic changes of paradigm. 2. Research source and issues The film in question--Wedding Traditions of Kihnu Island--was completed in the Film Studio of Tartu State University in 1956. (3) The film's authors defined it as a documentary to be used as a supplement to the study course on Estonian folklore. The film's research consultant was Eduard Laugaste, the then associate professor for folklore at Tartu University, and his assistants were folklorists Veera Pino and Udo Kolk. One of the students who took part in the filming was Ottilie Koiva, who later studied the same geographical region and subject matter more thoroughly. (4) As today, researchers in the past were similarly attracted by the ancient feature of Kihnu weddings. In her description of these weddings, folklorist Ingrid Ruutel emphasises the fact that these folk traditions have been preserved from pre-Christian times to the present day: Fundamentally, the Kihnu wedding is a so-called tribal wedding that confirms an agreement made between two tribes. It is based on family society, on pre-Christian religious concepts and is generally characteristic of the Balto-Finnic nations. …