Mitologizacja występów ulicznych: dyskurs, autonarracja i autokreacja
Mythologizing Busking: Discourse, Self-Narration, and Self-Creation

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with the phenomenon of mythologizing the activity of buskers. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate that street performers, despite their rich and varied history, both diachronically and synchronically, continue to be represented in a simplistic, stereotypical way. The intention of the authors was to show the real, more complex image and identity of buskers. The research problem concerns the mythologization of street performances in terms of discourse, self-narration, and self-creation. The article relates to three research questions: (1) How are the activity of buskers and the performers themselves being described? (2) How do buskers create and explain their own stories in terms of performing in the street? (3) How do they create and interpret their image? The article is the result of a joint analysis of the outcomes of ethnographic fieldworks conducted independently by two researchers in 2011–2019 in various cities, mainly in Poland but also abroad. The results show that the activity of buskers is subject to mythologization, which impacts the discourse on their activity as well as the formation of their identity and image.

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