GOTTSCHEER FOLK SONG – FROM A MEANS OF FOSTERING NATIONAL DIFFERENTIATION TO A MEMORY KEEPER IN THE DIASPORA

TRADITIONES, 49/2, 2020, 141–166 The article focuses on changes in the roles and uses of Gottscheer folk song from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. The first part addresses how nationalist activists used folk songs from the end of the nineteenth century to 1941/42 in order to instill the idea of a national identity in the Kočevje region. The second part offers insight into the role of folk song in preserving the identity of present-day Gottscheers in the diaspora. The paper also touches on the concept of “German linguistic islands” and points to the role of scholarship in the (mis)understanding of the multicultural reality of linguistically mixed regions.