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Drowned Maidens And Mother Earth: The Roots Of Sexism In Russian Folklore Studies, Juniper Guthrie

The Corinthian

During the mid-nineteenth century, the Russian intelligentsia began to lean towards Slavophilic studies in their pursuit of Russian nationalism. The driving thesis of the Slavophilic movement sought to embrace Slavic (and for Russian nationalists, specifically Russian) culture and roots, pushing back against the Petrine and Catherine movements towards Westernization. A crucial element of this mythic Slavic culture that often went unquestioned was the strict code of its gender norms. Significant folklore collectors brought their class and gender biases along with them. They held very specific beliefs regarding “real” folklore and “proper” performances of tales, imposing their intellectual structure onto a …