За началата на европейския фолклоризъм
On the Origins of European Folklorism

Summary/Abstract: At the beginning of this article the author tries to identify the reasons behind the growing interest in folklore today. He searches for them in the needs for authenticity of culture, tradition and synthesis. After reminding of the etymology of the term folklore, he stresses that the late 18th and the early 19th century marked the beginning of a specialization of folkloric knowledge. This process is a manifestation of the phenomenon folklorism of culture. In general terms folklorism is defined as a cultural reception and an expression of the interaction between folkloric and non-folkloric culture. It is a necessity of the cultures of non-folkloric type and mostly of their striving for authenticity, synthesis and tradition. In this sense folklorism is interpreted as a specific culturologic history. Its ‘reverse’ is the folklorization as a ‘necessary’ counterpoint in the general cultural process. These formulations are further defined concretely on the basis of an analysis of culture during the Middle Ages and up to the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century. The article characterizes the specific features of folklorism during the National Revival period as the ‘reverse’ of the culture of that period. The manifestations of folklorism in literature, music, and society during the 18th century were particularly varied. The idea of the growing differentiation of society’s artistic life in the social-class and national aspect is brought to the fore and on this basis folklorism is linked to the national artistic process. What stands out here is the artistic folklorism as a realized attitude towards the folkloric heritage as well as the philosophical folklorism as a component part of the culturological concept of the Enlightenment whose roots can be traced to what was bequeathed to us by G. Vico and which was completed by J. G. Herder.

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