Paper short abstract:

Eilert Sundt's work on the morality of the rural population (1857) initiated folk life studies in Norway. The book is full of example stories, serving both as research material and as a tool to constitute its object of knowledge. The paper examines Sundt's rhetorical and performative use of examples

Paper long abstract:

Some examples is the title of the opening chapter of Eilert Sundt's large work on the "decency" of the rural population from 1857. Sundt, reckoned as the founding father of both ethnology and sociology in Norway, presents short narratives of encounters with persons from the lower rural population who had children born out of wedlock. He also asks whether such examples can contain true and reliable information? As an answer, Sundt presents strong arguments for the use of quantitative analyses, but he also starts each of the following chapters with more examples.

My paper will investigate Sundt's use of examples as more than introductory anecdotes. They serve to produce pathos, to convey morality, and to persuade the readers of his interpretations of what he has seen and heard. As such, they are elements of a rhetoric of truth, seeking to convince the reader about the low morality of the rural population. Furthermore, the examples have important performative aspects, allowing Sundt to present himself as the competent researcher and the virtuous observer of the low life of peasants and paupers. Most fundamentally, they serve to create an image of "the people", the Other, the group that is being subjected to the then new science of folk life studies. The examples become sites where the individuals that Sundt met, discursively can be made to perform according to the emerging ideas about this group, and consequently contribute to its coming into being.