Trends in Contemporary Lithuanian Children’s Folklore Research

Abstract

Contemporary children’s folklore is interesting and dynamic as it covers both traditional and new genres and reflects present-day realia as well as younger children’s and adolescents’ psychological world. The aim of this article is to discuss major stages and trends in contemporary Lithuanian children’s folklore research. The present study is based on analytical descriptive, and comparative methods. In Lithuania, the research into children’s folklore was started quite late in comparison to many other countries. The first scholarly studies on traditional children’s folklore were published by Pranė Jokimaitienė in the second half of the 20th century, whereas the research into contemporary children’s folklore was undertaken only in the last decade of the 20th century on the initiative of the folklorist Gražina Skabeikytė-Kazlauskienė. After 1990, when folklore material’s collection from children and adolescents was started, the Archive of Ethnology and Folklore at the Department of Cultural studies at Vytautas Magnus University enlarged by many examples of contemporary Lithuanian folklore. At the beginning of the 21st century, the material’s systematisation, analysis, and publication started; a few dissertations on children’s and youth folklore were successfully defended. In 2013, the monograph Contemporary Schoolchildren’s Folklore (Šiuolaikinis moksleivių folkloras) was published.