Folk Artisans and Dissidence in the Nomadic Generation of the 1970s and 1980s

Abstract

The dance house and folk artisans movements have developed into such a youth subculture in the cultural scope of the socialist Hungary, which the Kádárian cultural policy could support only partially, it was rather placed at the borderland between the ‘tolerated’ and ‘banned’ categories. The so-called Nomadic Generation was attached to the developing domestic dissident opposition just as well as to the cross border Hungarian intelligentsia through many threads, which seemed to be undesirable for those in power. This study outlines a general picture on the characteristics of the folklorist-movement of the 1970s and 1980s, thought to be dissident in nature, then it will show through examples of different life courses and case studies how the search for new paths materialized in folk handicrafts, and what impact this era exerted on the folk artisanship in the period after the political transition.