Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21066/carcl.libri.2016-05(02).0003
Treasure, Thievery and Mischief: Blending Culture and Negotiating Boundaries in the Worlds of Little People
Željka Flegar
; Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Education, Osijek, Croatia
Ivana Moritz
orcid.org/0000-0003-1232-2042
; Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Education, Osijek, Croatia
Abstract
This study places Croatian Tales of Long Ago (1916) by Ivana BrlićMažuranić in the context of international literature by discussing “little people” in children’s fictional texts. “Worlds of little people” (Lynch-Brown and Tomlinson 2005) reveal conceptual blending at a linguistic, cultural and semantic level visible in the creation of new emergent structures. BrlićMažuranić’s combining of seemingly incompatible concepts (Fauconnier and Turner 2002) from various aspects of Slavic and Croatian mythologies as input spaces in the process of conceptual integration demonstrates the ability of little people to transcend boundaries and allows for the creation of new and unique cultures and lexica. Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić’s Croatian Tales of Long Ago, populated with tiny characters such as Malik Tintilinić, is a superb example of an original, adaptable world comparable to those created by Swift, Andersen, Tolkien, Baum, Barrie, Norton, Dr. Seuss or Dahl. Consequently, the conceptual integration at work in Ivana BrlićMažuranić’s original Croatian mythology has resulted in the empowerment and enchantment of readers from long ago to the present day.
Keywords
conceptual blending; culture; little people; modern fantasy; mythology
Hrčak ID:
178728
URI
Publication date:
26.3.2017.
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