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Paper short abstract:

Emotions are considered as one of the most elemental characters of laments. Earlier research of laments has mostly focused on other aspects than emotion. I discuss how the marginalization and the text-oriented documentation have influenced the research of laments.

Paper long abstract:

Emotions are considered as one of the most elemental characters of laments. Already at the beginning of the 19th century Elias Lönnrot describes how dreadful it was to hear or experience when a woman bursting into loud crying while he was trying to collect some lament texts. The same Lönnrot’s texts reveal practices and ideologies of documenting; what kind of performances and which genres of oral poetry were the suitable ones for scholars, who were gathering material with elite ideas of nationhood. Even though Lönnrot and others documented laments, the genre with its obscure texts, crying voice and emotionality did not respond to their interests. Furthermore, the tone of Lönnrot’s description draws an image of an odd, uncontrollable, even terrifying performance. Even if plain texts might have been accepted as such, the performance proved to be too much.

In this presentation, I discuss how on one hand, the marginalization, and on the other hand, the text-oriented documentation have influenced the research of laments. I approach the emotions of archived lament performances with source critical viewpoint. I focus on the aspects that need to be considered in analysing and interpreting emotions and affective processes of laments. In addition to varying research interests, the atmosphere of the recording situation, the relationship between the collector and the lamenter, lamenter’s motivations to perform as well as the social and cultural norms with mythic beliefs have influence in that, what type of lament performance is documented on the recordings.