The borders between folklore and literature in the test “o folklore as a specific form of art ”by Piotr Bogatyriov and Roman Jakobson

Abstract

The article “Folklore as a Special Form of Creation” was published in 1929 and was written by Piotr Bogatyriov and Roman Jakobson, who were both practitioners of Russian formalism. Such article, which is a key reference for the popular culture studies, distinguishes folklore from literature by comparing them with Saussure’s notions of langue and parole. This comparison works as a starting point for bringing out the specific characteristics of folklore and of the so-called “border zones,” which are found in between oral expression and written texts. In our paper, we approach the possibilities to apply Jakobson and Bogatyriov’s findings to the analysis of the modern popular culture and one of its most significant expression, i.e., the mass literature.