The Haunted Discipline: On the Political Nature of Folklore and the Political Destiny of Its Study
The Haunted Discipline: On the Political Nature of Folklore and the Political Destiny of Its Study

Summary/Abstract: Referring to Italian examples, the paper focuses on the resilient concept of folklore as an objective and given set of cultural expressions, that has been haunting the discipline since its inception under the Romantic approach, and characterized the use that totalitarian regimes had been making of it. Since the second half of the last century, however, folklore scholarship could count on newer perspectives, drawn on the systematization of Gramsci's legacy, which frankly addresses its socio-political nature, and, by extension, the political relevance of its scholarship. Such a peculiar approach needs to be reconfirmed today, so as to cope with the returning temptations of a neutral approach within the contemporary heritage turn.

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