Overview
Creative responses to Covid 19 – no longer consumed by notions of divine retribution as in past plagues – constituted a broad cultural flowering, often within the digital world. This volume combines anthropology’s understanding of ritual and society with folklore’s appreciation of the marginal to explore the role of artistic practice in this period. The chapters consider many different examples of artistic resourcefulness in this time of adversity. Lockdown constraints provided opportunities to re-invent traditions, as in the alternative ‘non-fiestas’ of the Basque Country, in which women took up roles previously denied to them. On the pilgrim route of St James, decorating shrines allowed people a sense of normality and continuity at a time when churches had closed their doors. The shutting of venues led one group of Japanese classical musicians to new online ways of working, and a global following. Making a church tour in Buenas Aires virtual amplified an old legend that resonated with the media, highlighting the scandal of femicide during the pandemic. For individuals, online crafting might lend apt metaphors of mending, stabilizing and repair to daily lives; but, in the case of collage, absurdity and disjunction could also express uncomfortable new meanings. Forums of positive haiku blossomed; but satirical responses in the reworking of traditional Greek proverbs on Twitter, allowed participants to signal their distrust of politicians through creative uses of language. Anti-Vaxx and QAnon narratives, when viewed as folklore rather than disinformation foregrounding the fashioning of self and community within digital space. Children repurposed old games with ‘Coronavirus tag’, while locked-down artist-parents’ creative engagement with the world beyond their front door led to a national campaign for the rights of children to play on the street. Overall, there was a shift in artistic practice from inward activity to one undertaken in social solidarity. In many ways, this is the unifying theme of this startling period of recent history, as well as of this volume.
Full Product Details
Author: Patricia Lysaght ,
James H. Grayson ,
David Shankland
Publisher: Sean Kingston Publishing
Imprint: Sean Kingston Publishing
Volume: No 47
Dimensions:
Width: 15.60cm
, Height: 2.40cm
, Length: 23.40cm
Weight: 0.721kg
ISBN: 9781912385584
ISBN 10: 1912385589
Pages: 286
Publication Date: 16 December 2024
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
College/higher education
,
Professional & Vocational
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
These varied, personal, and often moving accounts attest to the power and irrepressibility of the human imagination. Dr Fiona Bowie, The Royal Anthropological Institute / University of Oxford The essays brought together in this excellent volume reflect the long association between Folklore and Anthropology, and the range of subjects demonstrates varied responses to the cultural impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.Dr Juliette Wood, The Folklore Society / Cardiff University
Author Information
Editors Patricia Lysaght is Professor Emerita of European Ethnology at University College Dublin. James H. Grayson is Emeritus Professor of Modern Korean Studies in the School of East Asian Studies at The University of Sheffield. David Shankland is Director of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Contributors Pedro Ricardo Coelho de Azevedo is a researcher at the Centre for Transdisciplinary Studies for Development (CETRAD) and at the Universityof Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), Portugal; and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Vigo, Spain. Julia Bishop is a research associate in the School of Education, University of Sheffield, UK; and co-director of the ‘Childhoods and Play: The Opie Archive’ research project. Margaret Bullen is a member of the Faculty of Education, Philosophy and Anthropology at the University of the Basque Country and also of AFIT(Feminist Anthropology Research Group). Maria Christoforou is an interdisciplinary artist and academic in the Interactive Media and Animation programme, at the University of Nicosia,Cyprus. Thomas A. Cressy is a Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University. Colleen Sheehan Deatherage is a Research Associate and adjunct faculty at St Stephen’s College at the University of Alberta. Cathy Greenhalgh is an independent film maker, lecturer, media anthropologist and writer. Marianthi Kaplanoglou has been a member of staff at the Department of Byzantine Philology and Folklore of the University of Athens since 2008. Natasha Mayo is an ensemble artist: ceramist, writer, social practitioner, and Senior Lecturer in Ceramics at Cardiff School of Art and Design. Maria Ines Palleiro is Professor of the Postgraduate Seminar ‘Orality and discourse analysis’ at Buenos Aires University and also Senior Researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research of Argentina.
