This book explores Slovakia's contemporary folk revival movement. The author, Joseph Grim Feinberg, discusses “phenomena that are generally considered by folklore enthusiasts to be authentic” and the “processes by which authentic folklore was identified, talked about, represented, reconstructed, reenacted, revised” (5). Feinberg combines ethnography with aesthetic study to argue that Slovak folklorism can be approached through Kierkegaard's philosophy of paradox: the creative work of authentic-folklore advocates lies in balancing the many ambiguities inherent in the selection, enactment, and re-enactment of dimensions of village culture. Feinberg conducted participant-observation research primarily in the eastern city of Košice, a major location for the authentic-folklore movement. An introduction, four chapters, and two conclusions lay out different dimensions of the notion of authenticity as it relates to folklore. Feinberg illuminates rural-urban and past-present paradoxes, but does not take on politics of gender, ethnicity, or religion here.

The book's introduction outlines a context of folkloristic performance under communism. Feinberg presents Slovak communist cultural officials’ statements on folkloric expression and other aesthetic views of the day by Slovak writers; he argues that although staged folklore was designed for spectacle, uniformity, and positivity throughout the Soviet sphere, there was a unique Slovak perspective on the topic. Feinberg also describes the late-nineteenth century “New Hungarian” dance style and musical repertoire that, in his experience, now attracts Slovak authentic-folklore advocates.

Chapter 1 describes paradoxes that advocates of authentic folklore generate or intensify when they try to persuade members of the non-dancing general public to learn, enjoy, and then improvise within the complex movement dialects of Slovak village dance. Feinberg describes the tanečný dom (dance house), a Slovak version of an event where attendees learn different village folk dance idioms and then dance informally within each village style. UNESCO has recognized the dance house as an internationally successful method of propagating folkloric expression, but Feinberg concludes that the tanečný dom is succeeding just with Slovaks who have prior dance experience in folk ensembles, rather than with a broad public. Chapter 2 describes the communal feelings and activities within an amateur folk ensemble; Feinberg participated and observed in the most physical way, as a dancing member of the group. He argues that folklore ensembles are as engaged in “antiperformativity” as they are in “performativity” (102), describing offstage activities such as intense physical training; last-minute trips to villages; enactment of calendar rituals; and post-rehearsal/post-performance gatherings at bars.

Chapter 3 describes folklore festivals in Slovakia. Feinberg's depictions of the experiences and actions of amateur ensemble members, and his descriptions of a range of festivals, provide much insight. Feinberg describes a student contest, a town festival, the nationally prominent Východná Folklore Festival, and an international festival, providing insight on how each event builds a communal high. He outlines efforts to add the teaching of dance idioms considered authentic to the program of the Východná Folklore Festival—something that advocates count as a major achievement. Feinberg concludes that festivals bridge the still-popular mass spectacles and new, more specific enactments of authenticity. Chapter 4 unpacks the symbolic categories generated by authentic-folklore advocates. Feinberg describes how advocates parse dance and movement vocabularies not just to preserve or choreograph, but in order to improvise. He argues that authentic-folklore performances emphasize the tragic and the lyric, not the narrative, but there is a continued emphasis on unified, coordinated gestures: this generates an alternative approach to spectacle rather than dispensing with spectacle entirely. The book's conclusions are devoted to ethnographic insight and aesthetic theory respectively. Feinberg reflects that participants in the authentic-folklore movement regard the style of participation as more important than the content of public presentation; advocates do not see themselves as engaging in nation-state politics, but instead as trying to bring Slovaks together in a way they think of as natural. As a final reflection, Feinberg proposes that subject and object, separated in the aesthetic paradox, may be merged through love.

The Paradox of Authenticity provides many insights on folk revival scenes in Slovakia; it would have been helpful for the author to specify in what ways revivalism might be responding to conditions in different parts of the country, namely uneven resource distribution and levels of influence exerted by professional folklore ensembles. Feinberg's discussion of folklore festivals is especially welcome. His translations from Slovak essays on aesthetics and from Slovak studies of the authentic-folklore movement are also valuable. We await further insights from this author on contemporary culture in Slovakia.