The Creation of the Database of the Folklore Collection of the Institute of Ethnography SASA ‒ Challenges, Experience and the First Results

Folkloristics 7/2 (2022):
Author: Đorđina Trubarac Matić
Text:
https://doi.org/10.18485/folk.2022.7.2.5

A report on the content and the current state of the archival Folklore Collection of the Institute of Ethnography of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences (IE SASA) is provided together with an overview of data regarding the time scope and the historical, political and cultural context in which the Collection was created. Its importance is pointed out, since it contains the largest collection of WW2 Partisan songs, post-WW2 communist propaganda and anti-Stalinist songs, the songs thematizing the post-WW2 reconstruction of Yugoslavia, the emancipation of women and other transitional processes initiated or accelerated in Yugoslavia after the communist revolution had been completed. Special attention is paid to the question of possibilities provided by digital humanities for solving the decades-long problem of systematization and classification of this huge folklore material (cc. 20.000 texts), as well as of creating the Database of the IE SASA Folklore Collection as helpful and intelligent research tool that can enhance the future use of the Collection as a valuable source of primary material in Humanities. The first results of the work on establishing this database ‒ which started in May 2022 ‒ are presented. The guidelines on the possibilities of Internet application of the Database are provided.

Keywords: Folklore Collection of the Institute of Ethnography of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences, Digital Humanities, Database of Folklore Collection of IE SASA, Partisan folklore of the WW2, folklore of the post-WW2 Yugoslav transitional period.