„Чуждата култура отблизо“
„A Foreign Culture up Close“

Summary/Abstract: Rosemary Statelova: A Foreign Culture up Close. Current Musical Practises of the Sorbs in the Lusatia Bicultural Region of Germany This book presents the results of a long-term research project (2000–2010) on current musical practices of the Sorbs from the Lusatia (Lausitz ) region in Germany. This is the first atempt of a Bulgarian ethnomusicologist to work in a remote location within a non-Bulgarian society. In her book, Rosemary Statelova is following not a pre-selected structure, but the logic of her own introduction to this peculiar culture, in the music it has and what purposes it has served, and serves now. Each phenomenon in the cultural life (formations, events, personalities, historical facts) is turned into a center of a web of connections with the whole of Sorbian culture. Its most important features are outlined as the constant fear of its extinction, the use of language and music as a sign and guarantee for Sorbianity, and its non-selfsufficiency. This is how we get to the matter of dominations and mutual impulses between the Sorbian and German culture. Aside from the anthropological point of view, Rosemary Statelova includes in her analytic strategies a historical review, a culturological approach, biographical approach, musicological analysis of both repertories and precise emblematic musical units. All this builds up a remarkable narrative, which transmits the personal and assimilating encounter of the researcher with the abundant material and leaves the impression that the researcher is opening up perspective after perspective, following this introduction to the Sorbian culture and society.

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