Doctoral defence: Katre Kikas "Modernization and vernacular literacy: 19th Century folklore collectors on the margins of archive and publics"

 

The doctoral thesis focuses on the folklore collecting campaigns led by Jakob Hurt and Matthias Johann Eisen in the last quarter of the 19th century. The texts written in the course of these campaigns are being held in the Estonian Folklore Archives of the Estonian Literary Museum (they can also be accessed in the virtual cellar of the ELM kivike.kirmus.ee). The thesis consists of an introductory part in six chapters and eight articles published in the years of 2013-2023.
As the folklore collecting campaigns were open to everybody, a lot of participants had only received minimal three year schooling. Thanks to this peculiarity, we can see many different ways of expressing oneself in the written language, which allows us to analyse these materials as sources of vernacular literacy. By vernacular literacy I mean the uses of written word that spread outside of the institutions dedicated to spreading of literacy (i e school and church) – uses that grow out of the everyday needs and creative endeavours of people who do not belong to the literary elite. The main research question of this dissertation is: what motivated those vernacular literates to participate in these campaigns? I assume that there are several motivators, many of which are closely connected to the contemporary keywords: literacy, the public, nationalism, modernity… So, while trying to detect the motivators, I also ask about the modernisation on the vernacular level – how ordinary people felt about the changes taking place and what kind of techniques they used to negotiate them. Nobody doubts that the folklore collecting campaigns of Hurt and Eisen are an important part of our cultural and scientific history. The aim of my thesis was to show that its importance is rather multifaceted and among other aspects it gives a glimpse into the vernacular literary culture of the time.

 

Senate hall (Ülikooli 18–204) and via Zoom (Meeting ID: 998 4286 9041, Passcode: 176630).