Language, folklore, migrations in the Balkans

Proposed project starts from the synchronic phenomenon of migration and mobility in the Balkans, phenomenon that later is to be reconstructed with a help of historical data, and/or refracted from the perspective of folklore and literary texts. The fieldwork data (mainly qualitative interviews with participants) is linguistically oriented toward participant’s first language or vernacular. The topic of migration will have interdisciplinary approach: sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics, anthropology of migrations, and anthropology of folklore are main analytical tools. The starting hypothesis is that these approaches are able to discover the following aspects of mobility and migration: bi-, and multiculturalism; bi- and multiligualism; relationship between mobility, space and time, and, consequently, space vs. place as interactional phenomena; frontier and border concepts; mobility in everyday life; individual vs. community; talk and narration about migrations; folklore interpretations of mobility and migration; transnational identities; rituals of separation; forced migration (refugees, deportation, repatriation, exile); rural–urban mobility; translocations; position of second and third generation of migrants; language–religion interaction; change of social networks; gender aspect of migration; new wave of economic migrants; and – Serbia as a country of immigration, among others.