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: : : o· o o : : : OM II Ethnic Groups and Ethnic Folklore .:. : : : : : : : MO· :. The Letter in Canadian Ukrainian Folklore Robert B. Klymasz Although ;mm;gf'ant gf'oupings often dellelop ethnic consciousness and pf'omote ethnically based action, the ;mmigf'ant experience may be concepttkJlized independently 0/ethnic identities andconcerns. One immediate concern 0/imm;gf'ants;s thei,. abilityto communicate with family andfriends in the Old Country. The immigf'ation of Ukf'anian peasants to Canada towaf'd the close of the nineteenth century imbued the activity oflette" writing with new lIalue and importance. Lettef' writing was not only impof'tant as an actillity, but as a symbol-a symbol of connectedness to and distance ff'om family and homeland. As such, the lettef' became a pf'om;nent motifin Canadian Ukf'a;nian folksongs, and letters came to be composed in the form offolksong texts. Fo,. more on the emigrant Jetter see Degh (1978). Klymasz (1973) and Ki,.shenblattGimblett (1978, 1983) pf'ovide further insight into immigrant !olkJof'e. Fof' mOf'e on Ukrainian folklof'e ;n Canada see Klymasz (1980). INTRODUCTION One of the main functions ofspeech is to communicate, to establish contact between an addresser and his addressee. If, however, the barriers of time and space are insurmountable, the verbalized message, once emitted, will fail to be received by the intended addressee-unless, of course, some vehicle such as the telephone is available to transmit the verbalized message. Until recently, most peasant societies have had no immediate access to such other vehicles for purposes of long distance, interpersonal communication; they have not usually been able to afford them nor, in most instances, would they find them necessary. Verbal messages as well as oral literature, in peasant cultures, are transmitted in that classic setting which involves a direct, face-to-face, physical confrontation of at least two individuals: the addresser and his addressee, the narrator or singer and his audience. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, from Jo.,.".1 0/ the Follelo,.e Instil.te 6, no. 1(1969):39-49. Not for further reproduction. 53 Robert B. Klymasz This discussion is concerned with the breaking-up of such a traditional setting and its folkloristic implications. The examples used here have been selected from a large collection of Ukrainian folklore materials which I recorded in Canada from 1961 to 1967.1 They are, then, the materials of an immigrant ethnic group which, in common with other immigrant groups on this continent,2 found that the letter alone could replace the casual, everyday verbal contacts once enjoyed with friends, relatives and loved ones back in the Old Country. This transition from one form ofcommunication to another marked acrucial change for the Ukrainian immigrant in Canada who had little personal experience with letter writing. The bulk of Canada's early Ukrainian settlers were illiterate or semiliterate peasants whose desire for long distance communication with the Old Country was frequently frustrated, as reflected in the following excerpt from a lyrical immigrant folksong recorded in Mundare, Alberta: My beloved [male] is away in the Old Country And I [female], poor soul, am here. A cuckoo-bird [female, the singer's messenger] did coo On a wide bridge: "Come, 0 come, my beloved, At least for a visit!" This is wishful thinking; the bridge represents the traditional solution to geographical barriers in the old country. My head does ache, I've nothing to bind it with, And there's no one to pass the word To my beloved that he may know. Here there is anxiety and frustration at the realization that no bridge can span the ocean and that verbal communication, direct or indirect, is impossible. I shall bind my head With a silken kerchief, And I'll pass the word to my beloved By way of the grey falcon [male, his messenger]. The problem is resolved in terms of another day dream. The Ukrainian peasant in Canada was not, ofcourse, totally unaware that such things as letters and letter writing existed. Generally speaking, however, these were looked upon as something exclusively reserved for the educated, upper classes: the clergy, the wealthy nobility, and assorted professionals. The peasant knew, for example, that letters could function as powerful instruments in the hands of emperors and tsars whose commands concerning matters of life and death were often communicated by means of letters, as recalled in this stanza from a Ukrainian ballad recorded in Canada: 54 [3.15.6.77] Project MUSE (2024-04-25 08...

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