The human sausage factory : a study of post-war rumour in Tartu
Under certain conditions, some rumours, which were established as part of folklore already long ago, may become fixed in the memory and the subconscious of several generations. This is what happened with the rumour about a human sausage factory after the Second World War. In Tartu, Estonia, this rumour obtained a symbolic meaning and power due to the politics of the totalitarian Soviet regime. The memories of the post-war period are still vivid in the collective mind, and the onetime rumour of sausage factories incorporates the population's tensions, pain, loss, choices, defiance and irreconci
Folklore
1 online resource (x, 180 pages) : illustrations
9789401209731, 9401209731
1071968435
Print version:
Cover; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of contents; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Tracing an old horror tale; Rumour and the post-war period in Tartu; Rumours in retrospect; Rumours and legends
truth, ideology and interpretation; The sources and nature of this book; Chapter 1
Narratives about consuming human body parts as a folkloric and socio-historical phenomenon; Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century predecessors; Chapter 2
The legend of the sausage factory: post-war images of violence and evil; A secret room or chamber. The milkmaid enticed into the ruins in broad daylight and the child sent to deliver a letterInformants' performance strategies: the limits of understanding and mediating violence; Conclusion; Chapter 3
The folklore of the split society: rumours of cannibalism in post-war Estonia; Some views of the different features of ethnocentrism; Creation of the figure of the adversary and possible symbolic semantic models relating to the sausage factory story; Estonians and others; Estonian versus Estonian; Estonian versus Jew; Conclusion. Chapter 4
The sausage factory rumour: food contamination legends and criticism of the Soviet (economic) systemFingernails in jellied meat: reality or fabrication?; The story of Paul Saks; Taboos against discussing the Siege of Leningrad; Sausage factory rumours: a criticism of the Soviet (economic) system?; The sausage factory rumour: aggression and control; Legend and humour; Chapter 5
On the reception of the sausage factory story today; Legends: a source of memoirs and biographies; On the content, structure and means of describing the Tartu narratives. The 'forbidden city' and forbidden memoriesThe sausage factory rumour as part of the identity of the pre-war generation; When survival becomes ordeal: informants' answers; The first narrator
female engineer with Christian views; The second narrator
farm girl and town official; The third narrator
construction worker and chronicler; The fourth narrator
chauffeur and bookseller with an interest in culture; They might come back
the story without an ending; Chapter 6
Rumour as a metaphor for social truth; Notes; List of illustrations; Archival sources. Interviews, correspondence, manuscript biographiesBibliography; Index