Cultural Schizophrenia

Defining the term “pop culture” is a challenging task. There is no standard definition of just what it is, though one cultural theorist, John Storey, has described several of its features which are easily identified. According to Storey, pop culture “…is definitely a culture that only emerged following industrialization and urbanization.” More importantly, he states that pop culture is best defined in juxtaposition to an “other”: “popular culture is always defined, implicitly or explicitly, in contrast to other conceptual categories: folk culture, mass culture, dominant culture, working-class culture, etc. A full definition must always take this into account,” he writes.

Mainstream Rusyn culture is just about the only “other” available to Rusyns. Even today, mainstream Rusyn culture is heavily rooted in the 19^th century national revival and even earlier folk traditions. Thanks in large part to the policies of the Eastern Bloc countries in Europe and assimilation processes among Rusyns in emigration, extremely limited progress was made in the 20^th century. With 1989, old traditions suppressed since the forced Ukrainization of the 1950s had to be reclaimed and popularized. Therefore, Rusyn culture started out the 1990s looking backward to try to preserve folk, religious and village traditions. Unfortunately, it has neglected to look ahead in order to ensure that the culture is sustainable in the future. In this way, an anachronistic situation has emerged – the Rusyns are living in the 21^st century with a 19^th century culture.

Fourteen years into the renaissance of Rusyn culture in Europe, the time has come to change gears. Maintaining a culture in the 21^st century which is rooted in the 19^th is untenable. What use is a culture stuck in the nineteenth century in the face of globalization, which is hastening a process of international homogenization? Significant changes in the definition of Rusyn culture must be made if it is to thrive in the modern world.

I believe that Rusyn culture does not currently offer a full range of choices for its young. Public cultural expression is limited to folk festivals; individual expression to media, which itself tends to be heavily interested in folk topics. The emergence of a pop culture is not only necessary but also crucial if Rusyns want to ensure that their young remain Rusyns and do not fall victim to the threat of assimilation. The culture need not be sexier than the majority culture, be it Slovak, Ukrainian, Hungarian – to say nothing of the increasingly widespread American-led global culture – but it must at least be attractive.

A large number of young Rusyns now live in urban centers, from mega cities like New York, Moscow, Munich, Toronto, Budapest, Belgrade and Prague, to regional centers like Užhorod, Pittsburgh, Bratislava and Novi Sad, to smaller – but no less urban – towns like Khust, Mukačevo, Košice, Prešov, Krynica, Legnica, Gorlice, Subotica, Osijek, and Rijeka. The World Congress of Rusyns has tacitly acknowledged this – with the exceptions of Medžilabirci and Ruski Kerestur, all of its meetings have convened in cities. In order to keep Rusyn youth Rusyn in an urban setting where assimilation is stronger and quicker, a culture which can compete is essential. The increasing number of urban Rusyns bodes well for the emergence of a Rusyn pop culture, since, as stated above, pop culture is inexorably linked to urbanization.

Rusyns will never be able to create a popular culture which can supplant the globalized Hollywood cinema, American and British music, Harry Potter books, etc. But it can create a viable alternative. Obviously, the Rusyns – lacking a state and, more importantly, the tax money it would provide – cannot create as full a cultural alterative as, say, Slovakia or Poland. But there is much work already being done which is trying to bring Rusyn culture into the 21^st century. The place to start is with large-scale promotion of what is already in place. The internet and the newly-formed World Forum of Rusyn Youth are two vehicles which offer significant and exciting opportunities to do just that.

There are several Rusyns whose works do not fall within the rubric of folk culture, whose work is clearly aspiring to something else. Unfortunately, we cannot properly speak of a Rusyn “pop culture,” since none of these works are widely popular just yet. In order for a work to become part of a “pop culture,” it must “be taken up by ‘the people’; it must provoke conversation and enter oral circulation and recirculation…. Like everything else made available by the media and culture industries, it has to be made popular,” according to Storey. So far, this has not happened.

Cultural schizophrenia:

Though it is easy to describe Rusyn culture as being a 19^th century culture trying to survive in the 21^st century, it is not entirely true. One monkey wrench has been thrown into that neat, tidy description: Andy Warhol.

It should be pointed out that throwing Warhol’s works into the mix of Rusyn culture is a bit misleading, since he officially considered himself to be from “nowhere,” and never once made his Rusyn roots public knowledge. However, the fact that the Rusyn movement has focused on him so intensely guarantees his place in Rusyn culture, whether he likes it or not. Ever since the rebirth of the Rusyn cause in 1989, Andy Warhol has been the patron saint – or celebrity if nothing else – of the movement, thanks to his fame and international prominence. These were seen as being beneficial to the national cause, even if Warhol himself had nothing to do with Rusyn culture as such.

The irony is that everything Warhol represents stands in direct contrast to the rest of Rusyn culture. Warhol was the father of Pop Art, which was ultra modern in its day. While some have tried to view his works through the prism of icons, psyanky, etc., the concept of Pop Art is the antithesis of folk. Warhol’s films were experimental, difficult to watch, challenging to understand. They stand in opposition to the easy narrative traditions of Rusyn theatre, as well as to the documentaries and features made in recent years about – and in one or two cases by – Rusyns. Warhol’s legacy includes homosexuality and drugs. The Rusyn culture is fantastically asexual: sex – gay or otherwise – has little breathing room; and drugs – except alcohol and cigarettes – are unknown. Warhol was obsessed with fame and the nature of celebrity; the Rusyns are one of the least-known nations in Europe.

Thanks to Warhol’s presence in the pantheon of cultural figures, Rusyn culture can be viewed as schizophrenic. On the one hand, there is a folk culture based on village life, folk festivals, folk songs and dance, miracle-working icons and wooden churches. The majority of poetry, prose and even non-fiction published in Rusyn, and in other languages about Rusyns, also fall into this category. Even the Rusyn-language media more often than not fall into this trap. On the other hand Andy Warhol, the father of Pop Art, cosmopolitan New Yorker, the Rusyns’ most famous son, is promoted as a national spokesman. Many try to sweep his associations with drugs, homosexuality and the like under the carpet, but this will never be entirely successful, thanks to the very feature which has made him so attractive to the Rusyn movement – his world-wide significance.

The schizophrenia resulting from Warhol’s inclusion into Rusyn culture is at its worst at events held at either Andy Warhol museum, whether in Pittsburgh or in Medžilabirci, where little girls dressed in national costume folk dance in front of his avant garde works. Clearly there is a problem.

The Warhol Museum of Modern Art in Medžilabirci itself is a symptom of the cultural schizophrenia. The museum opened in September 1991 in what was then a backwater Czechoslovak town of just 7000 inhabitants. At the time of the museum’s opening, the locals were horrified. Museum director Michal Bycko commented in a 1999 article: "Nobody wanted anything to do with this 'decadent American homosexual.'" In the same article, Slovak art scholar Hannah Hudecova said that "People here are strongly conservative and a little bit wary of the fact that Warhol was gay." She added that parents would not allow their children to participate in programs held at the museum, protesting the promotion of Warhol and the detrimental effect he would have on innocent children. The only way the museum could survive was by deepening the cultural schizophrenia – recreating Andy Warhol as a devout Greek Catholic and a model Rusyn.

Another symptom of the cultural schizophrenia can be found in much of the post 1989 Rusyn-language media, and ethnic Rusyn media published in a variety of other languages, e.g., The New Rusyn Times, published in English by the Carpatho-Rusyn Society. Mass media is rooted in the 19^th century Industrial Revolution, but played a major role in the modernization drives of the 20^th century in Europe and North America. It is doing little, however, to modernize the Rusyns. While a degree of current events is featured in Slovakia’s Narodny Novynky newspaper and Rusyn magazine and Poland’s Besida magazine in particular, the bulk of their contents are focused on 19^th century aspects of Rusyn culture – folk festivals, dance troupes, religious issues, village histories, etc. However, once again, Andy Warhol features into the Rusyn-language media in a big way as well – case in point, the “Klub Endi Varhola” page featured in every single issue of Rusyn magazine since it began publication.

Another recent example is the “Lemko [Rusyn] Language with Computers” course held from 29 June to 5 July 2002 in Warsaw at the Polish-Japanese Higher Education Center for Computer Technology. Lemko elementary and high school students participated in the course, which was organized by the Lemko Association and at the Pedagogical Academy in Krakow. The course had a special focus on Lemkos and the internet, its use for contact with Lemkos dispersed throughout the world and using Lemko Rusyn on computers.

Accompanying events included a tour of Warsaw, a song program made up of folk music, a concert by a Slavic choir and a seminar on 19^th and early 20^th century literature. Photos published with a report on the course in Besida (below) show Lemko children in folk costume on the school’s steps. The folk aspects were outrageous, and the impression they provide is one of immense anachronism.

Of all the Rusyn-language media in Europe, only one periodical stands out as an exception: Serbia’s MAK. Surprisingly modern themes such as drugs, sex and complex, emotional politics are this magazine’s mainstay. One important side effect to this is the fact that by discussing such themes in the Rusyn language, MAK is helping to demonstrate the breath of the language, flying in the faces of critics who call the Rusyn dialects useful around the house but worthless for serious discussion.

The emerging middle ground:

Raymond M. Herbenick’s 1997 book, Andy Warhol's Religious and Ethnic Roots: The Carpatho-Rusyn Influence on His Art is an example which shows that the cultural schizophrenia has been noticed, in that the author is trying to tie Warhol closer to Rusyn folk and religious culture. The book applies Rusyn cultural influences – such as iconography and patterning – on Warhol’s work. However, it was not well received, and does not present a compelling argument. Warhol simply will not conform to the standard understanding of Rusyn culture.

However, the fact that someone as alien to Rusyn culture as Andy Warhol has been adopted into the cultural pantheon does give hope for the culture’s future. It shows that a degree of adaptation is possible in Rusyn culture. And in fact, a degree of adaptation is quietly taking place in various ways all over Europe and in North America. Slowly, a middle ground is emerging between the little girls in folk costumes and Warhol the decadent gay junkie.

There are numerous Rusyn-related films, the start of a Rusyn pop music scene, experimental literature, Outsider art, political cartoons…the list goes on and on. However, the basic problem is that Rusyns are not aware of what pop culture they in fact do have. The first and easiest thing to do is to devote more attention to these people and their work in the Rusyn media. Beyond that, the internet has not been fully exploited to further Rusyn culture, and attention must be directed there. And the World Forum of Rusyn Youth, convening for the first time in June 2003, will hopefully become a driving force behind the development of a true Rusyn pop culture.

So what exactly is this emerging middle ground, and how can it create a Rusyn pop culture? The next several issues of Outpost Dispatch will feature brief overviews of what may soon become a real Rusyn pop culture, in fields as diverse as film, music, literature, art and media.