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- Title
MOTERIS ŠIUOLAIKINIUOSE FOLKLORINIUOSE LIETUVIŲ TOSTUOSE.
- Authors
Skabeikytė-Kazlauskienė, Gražina
- Abstract
The aim of the present study is to address the problem of the image of the woman in the contemporary Lithuanian folk toasts. It is relevant to find out the peculiarities of presenting the woman in this folklore genre, which is widespread today, because the research may contribute to a deeper cognition of gender and popular culture's phenomena. As sources for research, toast texts, preserved in the archives of the Department of Ethnology and Folklore at Vytautas Magnus University, were used. Since Lithuanian folklorists have not written about toasts as a genre yet, the first part of this article presents the general characteristics of the folk toasts. It is stated that the dominating composition model of the contemporary folk toasts is made of two parts: the main text or introduction and a formula, which encourages drinking. Toasts have a didactical purpose. They invite to drink for something, which is considered a value for the orator. In order to make the speech of the orator seem more valid, toasts quite often refer to some other authoritative texts, but that are not always indicated. Since the content of a toast varies according to the gender of the orator, in the article it is explained which text and context details help to indicate whether a man or a woman were saying it. The second part of the article deals with the toasts explaining the origin of a woman. The introductions of this kind of toasts are constructed according to the model of an etiological legend. They emphasize the aesthetic aspect of the divine creation. Comparison of the toasts demonstrated that the toasts, which were liberally referring to the biblical motifs, underlined the unequal position of a man and a woman and the woman was usually considered to be of a lower standing. The third part of the article focuses on the expression of the feminine sexuality. The contemporary folk toasts avoid referring to the sexual relationships directly. Discourses about sex are masked by using fables, folktales and other forms of narratives, and by using linguistic codes. Disguising of the sexual content is determined both by the traditions of the discourses regarding sex and by the toasts' genre canons. Having decoded the content of the toasts it becomes clear that they address a woman as someone meeting the requirements of men and encourage ignoring the traditional norms of the sexual morality. The fourth part of the study is dedicated to the image of the wife in the toasts. For demonstrating the relationships between the wedded, plots of anecdotes and exemplas are used. In the anecdotic toasts it is well-liked to joke about the woman infidelity. An unfaithful wife usually is not judged on openly. A characteristic principle of creating laughter is turning the world upside down and treating the defect as a value. The exempla type toasts explain that the success of the marital life depends on the attempts of the wife to please the husband. They promote patriarchal marital relationships, but it is worth mentioning one difference - when toasts refer to the role of the woman in the family, the characteristics of the woman as a mother are not highlighted. In the end of the article the following conclusions are presented: 1) The artistic image of a woman rather depends on the genres, to which the introductions of the toasts are referring. 2) The woman tends to be viewed from a masculine point of view: the ideal woman is a sex object, easily reachable by men, or a wife, carrying the responsibility for the fortune of the family. 3) For a part of the toasts a masked discourse about sex is characteristic and, after encoding it, it becomes clear that the toasts about a woman reflect a junction of the old, Christian, and the new moral. 4) As an entertaining public discourse, whose main function is appellant, by saying toasts it is sought to suggest a certain attitude towards the woman, however, the expressed ideas sometimes should be considered a joke.
- Subjects
LITHUANIA; TOASTS; WOMEN in popular culture; FOLKLORE; SOCIAL development; FOLKLORISTS; LECTURES &; lecturing; VYTAUTAS Magnus University (Kaunas, Lithuania)
- Publication
Gender Studies & Research, 2009, Vol 7, p92
- ISSN
1822-6310
- Publication type
Article