Oblique performance : Snapshots of oral tradition in action

Consider three moments, widely separated in space, time, cultural setting. The first occurs in the northwest corner of Arkansas in the 1930s. A young woman kindles a small fire behind her family's farmhouse, kneels beside it, and burns the letters of a departed lover. The second takes place a half-century later, in 1989, in Timisoara, a provincial town in southern Romania. Captured on a bit of newsreel film, a man in a bulky coat leans from a curb and spits upon an X-crossed portrait photograph pinned by the wiper to the windshield of a slow-moving car. The bespattered face is the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, just deposed and summarily executed. The third moment returns to Arkansas, goes back to 1983. It's a retirement party arranged by his subordinates for a supervisor of custodians at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. It's a surprise, unveiled when the crew breaks for dinner. A "gag" gift comes first, a silly hat with an obscene motto. Next is a cake, decorated with a straightforward message of respect and good wishes. Coeds in swimsuits then carry in the "real" gift, wrapped (another "gag") in a series of nested boxes. It's a watch, engraved with another farewell message.Issue title "Slavica.

Performing off stage : Oral tradition under the radar

Oral tradition for me has been playground basketball, music, jokes, and a party organized by a cohort of janitors for their retiring boss.1 Jokes, games, and music as aspects of oral tradition will surprise no one, so I'll use the party for my stab at "interesting new directions."Not

Race, Place, and Identity: Examining Place Identity in the Racialized Landscape of Buckhead, Atlanta

This thesis examines the role of racialized practices in the discourses and processes that alter place identity. Drawing on ethnography from the East Village of Buckhead, a once vibrant nightlife district in Atlanta, I examine how discourses of danger, colorblindness, and the race card have been employed to “whitewash” the discussions about the redevelopment of the Village. In effect, the business and civic elite of Atlanta (and Buckhead) deployed racialized conceptualizations of group identity. In particular, they utilized “public safety” discourses to influence the Atlanta city government to support the redevelopment effort. This led to the elimination of the establishments that attracted African American partygoers in large numbers. Using interviews with government agents, night club operators, and Buckhead civic and business leaders, combined with archival analysis of newspaper accounts, I implemented a hybrid content-discourse analysis to explore the ways in which the discourses of race and place concerning the East Village changed between 2000 and 2008