Contemporary Serbian Folkloristics on the Pages of “Folk Art and Ethnology” Journal

The article is devoted to the reception of contemporary Serbian Folkloristics in Ukraine. The publication of the scientific works of Serbian folklorists in the “Folk Art and Ethnology: Serbian Folkloristics” journal (2012, no. 2) is submitted in this context. The special issue has been published as a result of a joint international project involving M. Rylskyi Institute of Art Studies, Folkloristics and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the University of Belgrade and the Institute of Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. The number comprises twenty scholarly articles addressing topical issues of a broad interdisciplinary nature and representing the diverse folkloristic interests of various academic and educational institutions in Serbia. The significance of the published work is associated with the attention paid to intangible cultural heritage as a factor of national (Ukrainian and Serbian) identity; at the same time the anthropocentric foundations of contemporary scholarship and a modern approach to the analysis of the folklore text are emphasized. Within contemporary anthropocentric frameworks, particular attention is devoted to the relationship between folklore and the mentality of people, paying attention to the communicative and functional capacities of the word – of that which is represented in folklore as a traditional megatext. Furthermore, current changes in the paradigm of folkloristics are associated with transformations in the very concept of the folklore text, which increasingly acquires the significance of a communicative act and an act of culture. Consequently, the modern stage in the study of folklore constitutes a qualitatively new phase in comparison with the previous period in the development of folkloristics and ethnology, including the Slavic countries. Continuing the long-standing cooperation between Serbian and Ukrainian folklorists, the special issue of “Folk Art and Ethnology” journal, called Serbian Folkloristics, has opened new opportunities for joint research aimed at the preservation and popularization of folklore in modern world.