Lauku cilvēks pilsētā: ieskats pētnieciskajā aspektā un problemātikā
A Peasant in the City: An Insight into the Research Aspect and Problems

Summary/Abstract: The article draws upon materials gathered from interviews recorded during folklore field studies carried out by the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Latvia. Narrative research on personal experiences encompasses accounts of rural individuals’ initial encounters with urban environments. The experience of transitioning to the city, with Riga being the most common destination, is frequently characterized by peasants in terms of binary oppositions such as “own – foreign”. Similarly, narratives of personal experience also depict the artificial cities of the Soviet era, constructed around newly established factories, which attracted thousands of people from surrounding collective farms or other republics, thereby disrupting the natural development of the environment. Some of these cities have since become semi-abandoned, resembling ghost towns. In addition to narratives about artificial cities, folklore field studies have also captured stories about ancient cities that emerge from the ground periodically at certain intervals.

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