Handwritten Quiz as a Genre of Amateur Folklore Studies (Based on the Material of the “Folklore” Collection-Quiz by L. N. Ukhareva)

Abstract

The article analyzes the text of the handwritten collection "The Living Olden Times of the Vetluga Region" by the amateur collector L. N. Ukhareva. The collection contains a number of folk signs, prohibitions, prescriptions and is designed in the form of a quiz with answer options describing the consequences of the existence of a particular phenomenon. The purpose of the article is to characterize the folklore collection as a type of text with specific typological genre features, as well as specific features of a unique author's work. Both the signs selected by the author of the collection and the answers she invented are analyzed. The collection demonstrates the mixing of folklore genres typical for such works, referring not only to signs, but also to prohibitions and prescriptions. The form of presentation of the material as a quiz is unique, because the introduction of the audience to this genre is carried out at a cultural event with interactive and entertainment elements. The selection of folklore texts and answer options was guided by the relevance of the mentioned realities for the addressee. The addressee, in the author's view, is a bearer of urban culture, which significantly narrows the range of topics mainly to questions of the physical condition of the body, well-known realities of domestic life and elements of funeral rite. When choosing incorrect answers, the author actively uses the strategy of metonymic transfer, due to the clarity of the relations between the phenomena of reality when using this strategy. A strategy is often used to replace the intended result with a direct value characteristic of reality, since such characteristics often coincide for speakers of different types of cultures. In addition, the author of the collection often includes elements of the urban cultural code in the author's text elements. The author's goal is not to simply accumulate folklore material, but to demonstrate it to bearers of a different type of culture, which is what the content of the collection and the form of presentation of the information contained in it are aimed at.

Funding

The grant of Russian Science Foundation No. 23-78-10029 (https://rscf.ru/en/project/23-78-10029/) is gratefully acknowledged.

Received 5 January 2025

Revised 7 April 2025

Accepted 21 April 2025

For citation: Bondarenko, E. D., Kostylev, Yu. S., 2025. Handwritten Quiz as a Genre of Amateur Folklore Studies (Based on the Material of the “Folklore” Collection-Quiz by L. N. Ukhareva). Slavic World in the Third Millennium, 20 (1–2), pp. 145–160. https://doi.org/10.31168/2412-6446.2025.20.1-2.08