Margaret Beissinger

 
Margaret Beissinger
Research Scholar and Lecturer
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Location: 
038 East Pyne
Office Hours: 
Tuesdays/Thursdays 11-12 or by appointment
Telephone: 
609-258-3874
E-mail: 
mhbeissi@princeton.edu
Education: 
PhD in Folklore & Mythology (South Slavic and Romanian) (Harvard University, 1984); AB in Folklore & Mythology (Harvard University 1976)
Website: 
slavic.princeton.edu
CV: 
cv13.margaret.beissinger.doc
Profile: 

My scholarship and teaching center on Balkan oral traditions, Romani (Gypsy) culture, oral epic, and Balkan languages and literatures. I am especially interested in the role of Roma as performers of traditional and popular culture in Balkan society, oral epic as a genre, and gender and narrative in eastern Europe. Until fall 2006, I was an Associate Professor in the Slavic Department and Folklore Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I also taught Balkan languages and comparative oral literature.

Current Project: 

I am working on two book projects.  One is a volume of essays I am co-editing on the contemporary “oriental” Balkan ethno-pop genre (manele) performed in Romania by Gypsy musicians.  The other, Culture and Performance among Romanian Gypsy Musicians, is a book on Gypsy musician families, their worlds, and repertoire; I am particularly interested in how the post-communist period has shaped culture and performance among lăutari (traditional musicians) and manelişti (performers of manele). The findings for both projects are based on extensive fieldwork in southern Romania.  I am also completing a comparative article on the taboo against incest between ritual kin as expressed in Balkan oral epic.

Courses Taught: 

Narratives of Identity in the “Other” Europe: Reading Culture in the Balkans (FRS 167)
Romani (Gypsy) Culture in Russia and Eastern Europe (FRS 151)
Rituals, Songs, and Stories: Balkan and East European Oral Traditions (COM/SLA/HLS/ANT/NES 236)
Beginning Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian I (BCS 101)
Beginning Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian II (BCS 102)Intermediate Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian I (BCS 105)
Intermediate Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian II (BCS 107)
Advanced Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian Reading Course (BCS 90)
Romanian Reading Course (SLA 90)
Bulgarian Reading Course (SLA 91)

Authored Books: 
Epic Traditions in the Contemporary World: The Poetics of Community
Epic Traditions in the Contemporary World Book Cover

The epic tradition has been part of many different cultures throughout human history. This noteworthy collection of essays provides a comparative reassessment of epic and its role in the ancient, medieval, and modern worlds, as it explores the variety of contemporary approaches to the epic genre. Employing theoretical perspectives drawn from anthropology, literary studies, and gender studies, the authors examine familiar and less well known oral and literary traditions--ancient Greek and...

Selected Edited Volumes: 
Epic Traditions in the Contemporary World: The Poetics of Community
Epic Traditions in the Contemporary World Book Cover

The epic tradition has been part of many different cultures throughout human history. This noteworthy collection of essays provides a comparative reassessment of epic and its role in the ancient, medieval, and modern worlds, as it explores the variety of contemporary approaches to the epic genre. Employing theoretical perspectives drawn from anthropology, literary studies, and gender studies, the authors examine familiar and less well known oral and literary traditions--ancient Greek and...

 
 
Selected Articles: 

“Why Does Epic Survive?  A Comparison of Balkan Oral Traditions”
in Balkan Epic: Song, History, Modernity, ed. Philip Bohlman, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2012, 55-82.

“Court Poetry, Village Verse: Romanian Oral Epic in the Medieval World”
in Medieval Oral Literature, ed. Karl Reichl, NY, Berlin: de Gruyter Publishing Co., 2012, 386-408.

“Oral Poetry”
in The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, 4th ed., Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012, .978-81.

“Romani (Gypsy) Poetry”
in The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, 4th ed.Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012, 1207-8.

“Interlocking Oral Narrative Patterns in South Slavic Traditional Song: A Comparative Reading of ‘Banović Strahinja’”
in A Festschrift in Honor of Valtazar Bogišić, ed. Luka Breneselović.  Belgrade: Institut za uporedno pravo, 2011, 443-65.

“Schimbarea identităţilor în România postcomunistă: convertirea la penticostalism în rândurile lăutarilor romi”
in Spectrum.  Cercetări sociale despre romi, ed. Toma Stefánia & Fosztó László.  Cluj-Napoca: Editura Institutului pentru Studierea Problemelor Minorităţilor Naţionale, 2010, 267-79.

"Muzica Orientală’: Identity and Popular Culture in Post-Communist Romania"
in Balkan Popular Culture and the Ottoman Ecumene: Music, Image, and Regional Politica Discourses, ed. Donna A. Buchanan.  Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2007, 95-141.

"Roma." in Encyclopedia of World Folklore and Folklife. Vol. 3. Ed. William M. Clements. Westport, CT: The Greenwood Press, 2006. 395-408. 

"Romani (Gypsy) Music Making at Weddings in Post Communist Romania: Political Transitions and Cultural Adaptations."
in Folklorica: Journal of the Slavic and East European Folklore Association. Vol. 10, No. 1 (Spring 2005): 39-51. 

"The Performance of 'Oriental Music' in Contemporary Romania."
in Ethnic Identities in Dynamic Perspective. Eds. Sheila Salo and Csaba Prónai. Budapest: Gondalat Ethnic and National Minority Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 2003. 229-36. 

"Rites of Passage and Oral Storytelling in Balkan Epic and the New Testament."
in Oral Tradition: A Special Issue--The Bible in Ancient and Modern Media. Vol. 17, No. 2 (Fall 2002): 236-58. 

"Gender and Power in the Balkan Return Song."
in Slavic and East European Journal. Vol. 45, No. 3 (Fall 2001): 403-30. 

"Occupation and Ethnicity: Constructing Identity Among Romani (Gypsy) Musicians in Romania."
in Slavic Review. Vol. 60, No. 1 (Spring 2001): 24-49. 

"Teaching South Slavic Languages: A Survey of Textbooks and Reference Works."
in The Learning and Teaching of Slavic Languages and Cultures. Eds. Olga Kagan and Benjamin Rifkin. Bloomington: Slavica Publishing, 2000. 609-26. 

"Creativity in Performance: Words and Music in Balkan and Old French Epic."
in The Oral Epic: Performance and Music. Ed. Karl Reichl. Intercultural Music Studies. Vol. 12. Ed. Max Peter Baumann. Berlin: Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung, 2000. 95-113. 

"Epic, Gender, and Nationalism: The Development of Nineteenth Century Balkan Literature."
in Epic Traditions in the Contemporary World: The Poetics of Community. Eds. Margaret Beissinger, Jane Tylus, and Susanne Wofford. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. 69-86. And "Introduction." coauthored with Jane Tylus and Susanne Wofford. 1- 17. 

"Balkan Folklore and Literature."
in Folklore and Literature: An Encyclopedia. Eds. Mary Ellen Brown and Bruce A. Rosenberg. Santa Barbara: ABC CLIO, 1998. 42-46. 

"Text and Music in Romanian Oral Epic."
in Oral Tradition. Vol. 3, No. 3 (October 1988).