Paper short abstract:

The paper will discuss the potential of the idea of authenticity to encourage or limit the individual freedoms of folklore performers. The discussion will be based on a study of the Latvian ‘folklore movement’ that developed under the Soviet regime in the 1970s–1980s.

Paper long abstract:

The Latvian ‘folklore movement’ was a social movement in the 1970s–1980s that revived interest in folklore in society and advanced political changes. ‘Authenticity’ became a core concept of the movement. It was actively discussed and defined during the first years of the movement when the values, aesthetic principles, and control mechanisms of the movement were established. The revival performers used the concept of authenticity to oppose themselves to the Soviet style of arranged folk music (Boiko 2001). At the same time, the official amateur art system also used the concept to evaluate and, to some extent, control the performances of revivalists, creating a debate about aesthetically and morally right/wrong approaches to traditional music. These forms of protest and control were rooted in the theory of authentic folklore as a disappearing and almost unattainable ideal, which has a long history in folkloristics (Bendix 1997).

The research questions of this paper derive from the current theoretical considerations of authenticity studies by asking, “under what conditions, by whom, and for whom is the concept of ‘authenticity’ deployed, rejected, or debated, and who profits from it?” (Claviez, Imesch, Sweers 2020) Considering the non-democratic Soviet context of the events and opinions of that time, the paper will explore how different individuals and institutions acted “in the name of authenticity” or treated this doctrine with criticism, irony, or distance. The paper will address the potential of the idea of authenticity to encourage and limit individual freedoms.