Life in folktales or folktales in tife? How storytellers influence folk traditions

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Tautosaka; Tautosaka; Tradicijos; Pasakojimas; Baltų kultūra; Pasakos; Folklore; Folk Traditions; Storytelling; Baltic culture; Tales.

ENWhile reading older manuscript versions of folktales preserved in folklore archives, one often discovers a lack of information about the informant's personality and the context in which a folktale was related. Sometimes the collector who recorded the particular piece has left some notes providing basic information about the informant; more thorough collectors also describe the circumstances in which the folktale was related and some of the informant's non-verbal actions. But these are rare instances, and it is certainly best when the researcher records such material directly, that is, during the course of the fieldwork. This article is based on material collected by folklorist Bronė Stundžienė in 2006 in the town of Viekšniai (in the Mažeikiai region in northwestern Lithuania), 10 and material collected by this author during fieldwork conducted in Eastern Lithuania in 2009-2010. One of the goals of this article is to more deeply explore the personality of the folktale narrator and to reveal how their inner world and personal experience are reflected in their narratives. Another goal of this article is to examine what meanings a folktale can acquire in a contemporary context, especially in cases when the researcher is able to observe the performance situation and assess it from the perspective of contemporary folklore studies. This study also analyzes paradoxical situations in which the content of a folktale becomes intertwined with reality and how narrators behave in such situations. [Extract, p. 118]