Living Lament

Overview & Synopsis

This edited volume opens new approaches to lament research by analysing the intersections between ideologies and lament traditions, providing advancements in methodologies and the knowledge of domains that emerge at this intersection. In this book, laments are mainly discussed as a form of verbal art that conveys strong emotions, while ideology is regarded as broad and flexible, including not only formal systems but also more informal, unconscious models of thinking that shape people’s approaches, interpretations, discussions, and practices of laments. The book offers a multidisciplinary, multicultural view on laments, drawing from folklore studies, ethnomusicology, history, anthropology, and religious studies, covering regions from Northern Europe to indigenous cultures in Venezuela. Charles L. Briggs discusses laments as an example of incommunicability. Frog clarifies the historical Scandinavian lament tradition. Madis Arukask, Aušra Žičkienė, Viliina Silvonen, and Larissa Mulder analyse the changing tradition and the new meanings of laments. Hannah Kaarina Yoken and Arja Turunen focus on laments as a tool in feminist protest. The book shows how ideologies may valorise, elevate, subjugate, or erase laments, and that ideologies form the lens that exoticises or stigmatises laments, or that surrounds them with romantic nostalgia.