Re-Imagining Hungarianness: Re-Interpreting Archival Films in the Context of Hungarian Folk Dances
Re-Imagining Hungarianness: Re-Interpreting Archival Films in the Context of Hungarian Folk Dances

Summary/Abstract: This essay examines the role of archival ethnographic films of Hungarian folk dance and music in the production of cultural memory. Drawing on short-term, immersive ethnographic fieldwork in Hungary, I delineate the role of these films in preserving folk culture and cultivating national identity. I argue that archival ethnographic films function as a technology through which an ‘imagined Hungarianness’ is constructed, embodied, and transmitted. Through examples of contemporary folk dancing, I demonstrate how archival media continues to enforce a fixed notion of authenticity deeply intertwined with ethno-nationalism, heteronormativity, and cultural purity. However, by engaging with these archival materials through a queer lens, dancers generate forms of counter-memory that disrupt institutional narratives. Focusing on historical footage of male intimacy, contemporary choreographic reworkings of gendered dance vocabularies, and alternative, queer readings of historical recordings, I illustrate how queer and feminist dance practices question and subvert the heteronormative interpretations that dominate the field. Ultimately, this essay argues that these creative reinterpretations disrupt the archive’s regulating power, transforming it into a site of possibility where practitioners can construct counter-memories to challenge dominant narratives of what it means to embody Hungarian identity.

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