Multimedial Parallelism in Ritual Performance (Parallelism Dynamics II)

• Main Author: Frog
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: karelia*; karelian
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10355/65395

This article approaches parallelism as a semiotic phenomenon that can operate across verbal art and other media in performance. It presents an approach to different media and the uniting performance mode as construing "metered frames." Multimedial parallelism is analyzed as a phenomenon resulting from the coordination of expressions in relation to these frames to form members of parallel groups. The focus is on rituals that involve interaction with the unseen world. Discussion of parallelism between speech and empirical aspects of performance extends to the potential for presumed parallelism between speech and unseen objects, agents, and forces. John Miles Foley's concept of "performance arena" is extended to performers' and audiences' perceptions and expectations about "reality" in ritual performance. The mapping of otherworld locations and cosmology onto empirical spaces in performance is also discussed. Abstract from website. Frog is an Academy of Finland Research Fellow and Associate Professor in Folklore Studies at the University of Helsinki. He completed his Ph.D. in Scandinavian Studies at the University College London in 2010 and his Docentship (Habilitation) in Folklore Studies at the University of Helsinki in 2013. He specializes in theory and methods related to the study of oral poetry and mythology, working mainly with Finno-Karelian kalevalaic poetry and Old Norse poetry and prose.