[Daniel Rancour-Laferriere]

2 February 2006

Dear Colleagues,
James Bailey asks an interesting question.

There are some passages about dukhovnye stikhi in my recent bilingual 
monograph _The Joy of All Who Sorrow: Icons of the Mother of God in 
Russia_ (Moscow: Ladomir, 2005).  Looking at the bibliography of that 
book I see some other (non-Russian) items which touch on dukhovnye 
stikhi, namely:

George Fedotov 1975
Joanna Hubbs 1988
Linda Ivanits 1989

Nonetheless, it has to be admitted that there is a dearth of non-Russian 
research on the dukhovnye stikhi.  This is odd in light of the fact that 
the dukhovnye stikhi are so important in Russian folklore (and abundant 
- P. A. Bezsonov's _Kaleki perekhozhie_ [1861-1864] comes to four 
volumes).  Do I detect a certain resistance on the part of Western 
scholars to understanding Russian popular spirituality?

Regards to the list,

Daniel Rancour-Laferriere
Emeritus Professor of Russian
University of California, Davis


James Bailey wrote:

>Seelangers,
>     I got a note from a Russian folklorist asking about what works there
>may be in west-European languages about the Russian duxovnye stix.  I can't
>think of any.  Do any come to mind for anyone?  This scholar has a graduate
>student who is writing her dissertation on the duxovnye stixi and has used
>only Russian sources.
>     Thanks,
>    James Bailey
>
>James Bailey
>1102 Hathaway Dr.
>Madison, WI 53711
>
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