This article analyses the flow of speeches during a ”storytelling evening” in a northern Sweden village, where people had been invited to tell stories about the times and the work when timber and tar barrels were floated down the river. Focus is on how speakers claim authority and entitlement to have something to say, and how a large-scale hyper-narrative of “the floating epoch” is negotiated. Discussed in William Labov’s terms, although the result tends to give a general description without a clear narrative structure, there is a narrative closure implicit in the theme of the evening: when the floating work ended, the social life described also ended. Furthermore, the relevance of the storytelling is not only to find in the pride of the local history, but also in giving opportunity to comment on the contemporary situation where the hydroelectric power plant regulates the river and affects the landscape and living conditions.
The Blues in Sweden before 1960: varying conceptions of a genre
This article presents a review of the various meanings and shapes of blues as a genre in Sweden c. 1920–1960, drawing primarily on presentations in newspapers and jazz magazines, and recordings. Blues has been construed as an African American music, rising from specific social conditions; as an American music, a source for and subgenre of jazz; and as a part of music in the international modern society in general.
In 1923 blues was introduced as a new dance, and many new tunes were promoted as blues; medium tempo, chromaticism and altered chords seem to be the distinguishing traits. From the mid-thirties, blues was discussed as a predecessor to jazz as well as a jazz genre format (‘12-bar blues’). The rising interest in blues is followed through audience reactions in press, recordings, and jazz criticism. Jazz critics tended to promote country blues and Bessie Smith as authentic forms, while Josh White’s performances during his annual tours in the fifties were praised for his consummate artistry. The trad jazz boom, boogie woogie piano, skiffle and rock’n’roll all used the 12-bar format. In parallel, blues was also an occasional pop song denomination signalling melancholy. Identifying as a blues singer was not an option; this would change during the sixties.
Four fields of tension are identified: blues as a specific expression for African American experience vs. blues as a genre suited for Western modernity in general; blues as a subgenre to jazz vs. blues as an autonomous sphere; blues considered as genuine folk music vs. blues as popular music; and blues as a genre of mainly historical significance vs. blues as having contemporary relevance.
The clergyman Pehr Stenberg (1758–1824) in his autobiography frequently relates his andother people’s dreams and attempts to interpret them and makes possible connections to actual happenings. As a scholar he is sceptical about their knowledge value but cannot reject them entirely, so he goes into exploratory discussions of the relation between dreams and reality. In this article the use of dream narratives in social interaction, his use of dreams as a rhetorical device, his reactions to his dreams and reflections about his reactions are studied, besides his ways of discussing the ontology of dreams.
Umeå in northern Sweden was appointed European Capital of Culture for 2014, as part of conscious efforts to build a specific “city of culture” image. On one level, artists and culture activists, even public servants in the culture administration, are expecting the city to actively promote better conditions for cultural activities. Thus, the reactions to actions and decisions going the other way become extra strong and also get quite an impact on public discussion. The two years preceding 2014 saw some “embarrassing affairs” where the ambitions of the city to promote culture and give it an important place in the plans for the city, were contrasted with situations where local art and local artists were obstructed, censored, devalued, given worse conditions to work under, due to some general principle or rule decided upon by the municipality. The affairs include: one librarian who was not allowed to have an extra income from speaking about her own books; attempts to sell an old building that previously had been available for craftsmen’s shops; the closing down of another building used for alternative music concerts, and a case of censorship of a new art work. The media reports and public reactions are discussed and point to certain expectations that the municipality is supposed to live up to: respect of the artist’s need of supporting incomes; respect for the artistic work; support in form of infrastructure such as cheap and flexible locales and support in form of a permitting climate. The analysis points to how success of or failure to engage local artists in the municipality’s long-term planning may be just as dependent on communicating a positive attitude as on number and sizes of economic efforts.
In dem auto-ethnographischen Lebensbericht von Pehr Stenberg (1758–1824) gibt es viele Beispiele von alltäglichem Erzählen aus den unterschiedlichsten sozialen Milieus, zu denen er als Bauernjunge, Student, Lehrer und Pfarrer Zutritt hatte. Die Analyse zeigt, daß Erzählen eine soziale Kompetenz war, um Information zu übermitteln und zur Unterhaltung auf Reisen und bei Besuchen beizutragen. Der Aufsatz zeigt auch auf, wie Erzählungen in seinen Gedanken verankert waren, welche Gefühle sie ihn ihm erweckten und wie sehr er sie benutzte, um seine eigene Lebenssituationen zu verstehen.
This article explores the writing and circulation of poems as a 20th-century form of folklore, especially with local newspapers as a base for their publication. Poems about regional health care and about the elk hunting season are chosen as examples in order to focus on how writing poems can be a way of making public statements on matters of common interest in a regional (county) context. The examples show how different subject positions and varying attitudes towards a topic can be expressed through poems. A conscious choice of genre, such as prayer, thanksgiving, praise and accusation, can make positions clearer and give further emphasis to the tendency of the message. I also argue the importance of noticing poems, and local media in general, both in ethnographic research and in the documentation strategies of archives and museums. Poems can be a genre in which it is possible to speak of big and small questions in everyday life; writing them is one form of a local specialist role; and the local circulation of written texts (published or unpublished) is an important part of cultural history, a forerunner of social media. Local newspapers have been one of the few arenas where the voice of the public has been given space.
In 1967-1968 some Swedish avant-garde poets, artists, critics and musicians turned to pop music and formed groups that performed at museums, happenings, art galleries and other venues. Blå Tåget often used a variety of genres, sometimes with a nostalgic or ironic perspective; Träd Gräs & Stenar produced a mixture of rock, Swedish folk fiddling and minimalist drones and riffs. After 1968 both groups expressed a critical perspective on Western society and capitalism, and became leaders in building "the progressive music movement", which during the 1970s was a strong alternative force in Swedish music alongside subsidised art music institutions and the commercial music industry.
Kultur är ett begrepp för hur människor tillsammans försöker bygga meningsfullheter, skapa gemensamma symboler och symbolsystem samt hitta berättelser, föremål och handlingar som kan fungera som gemensamma utgångspunkter. Behovet att analysera de fenomen som benämns kultur är stort och varierat, och kulturanalys har vuxit fram som ett kunskapsområde i motsvarande utsträckning.
Denna bok är en introduktion till etnologisk kulturanalys med särskild betoning på metakultur, det vill säga olika former för "kultur om kultur", reflektioner och kommentarer till den egna kulturen som den upplevs av deltagarna själva. Med begreppet metakultur blir det också möjligt att analysera särskilda områden som populärkultur, kulturarv och konstarter med ett bredare kulturanalytiskt perspektiv.
Kulturanalys och metakultur vänder sig till studenter och forskare inom etnologi, kulturanalys, kulturstudier, museiutbildningar och närliggande områden.
Greger Ottosson (1955-2020) var en av pionjärerna inom den berättarrörelse som växte fram från 1980-talet. Med utgångspunkt i sin uppväxt på landsbygd formade han ett konstnärskap där egna barndomsupplevelser, berättelser från muntlig tradition och personliga gestaltningar av unika människoöden var centrala. Han tog initiativ till Bjurholms Berättarakademi och var heltidsanställd under en längre period vid Västerbottensteatern som berättare.
I denna bok som bygger på två längre intervjuer presenterar Greger Ottosson sin väg fram till berättarestraden och sina erfarenheter, tankar och idéer om muntligt berättande som estradkonst och som vardaglig medmänsklig kompetens.