Paper short abstract:

Precarity entails obligations that the non-precarious does not. Online, individuals can perform, observe, and research folklore from very different subject positions. Performing folklore of violence from positions of precarity changes what is at stake in both the performance and the researcher.

Paper long abstract:

The full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia has generated a surge of violent folklore. It takes many forms. For example, "May you die like dogs!," is a traditional curse now often applied to Russians on social media or "Saint Javelin," a digital image of what appears to be The Virgin Mary cradling an American-made antitank weapon. In these and many other cases, creative expressions emerging from the war in Ukraine today raise ethical and moral questions about the performance of violent folklore. In an age of global connection through social media, individuals can perform the same folklore side by side and yet inhabit very different subject positions. In the present paper, we consider these implications from the positions of Americans watching from afar and Ukrainians caught up in the conflict or involved in its diaspora. We propose that it is important to consider who is performing folklore of violence since a position of precarity changes what is at stake in that performance. Celebratory, mournful, aggressive, or violent themes in everyday cultural expressions are both a result of and can foster actual violence. Being mindful of that, the entailments of violent folklore are different for those put into precarious positions by physical violence. Precarious positions entail obligations that the non-precarious do not. Shaped by histories of both American and Russian vernacular imperialisms, researchers seeking to engage and document violent folklore must remain sensitive to the complex emotional and material outcomes that attend folklore of violence in an age of global connection.