Does folk dancing make Hungarians? Táncház , folk dance as mother tongue, and folk national cultivation

Taylor, Mary (2008) Does folk dancing make Hungarians? Táncház , folk dance as mother tongue, and folk national cultivation. Hungarian Studies, 22 (1-2). pp. 9-29. ISSN 0236-6568

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Abstract

This paper, based on participant research amongst folk revivalists, interviews with cultural managers, and extensive archival research, discusses the táncház (dance house) folk revival movement as the actualization of interwar efforts of “folk national cultivation” in Hungary. By putting the dance house in relationship with interwar folk critiques, the paper illustrates both continuities and discontinuities between them, most notably in conceptualizations of the relationship between the ethical or political roles of such critiques and of the folk itself. The paper argues that folk critiques, now and then, can play an important role in state formation by reproducing the folk and acting to secure its citizenship. Nevertheless, how the folk is defined is historically determined, as is the kind of citizenship entailed. Since folk national cultivation is premised on the idea that Hungarianness is produced through engagement with the folk and its traditions, the historical approach of this paper problematizes this process.

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