Original scientific paper
Spomenar – Traditional Genre of the Spontaneous Culture of Children and Youth
Mirjana DURAN
Abstract
Post-folklore or the so-called third culture is distanced from
official, elite culture as well as from patriarchal, rural culture.
Since it has not been studied enough, when discussing its
artefacts, whose creators and conveyors are children and youth,
we enter an almost unexplored area. Spomenar is a form in the
tradition of Croatian children and youth culture which has been
passed from generation to generation since the 19th century. The
aim of this paper is to determine the content of autograph
albums, their durability, and reference to similar forms in the
world (Autograph Album, Poesiealbum, Albom-pesennik). 108
autograph albums dating from 1874 to 2000 were collected for
the purpose of the investigation and their content was analysed.
The oldest pages in the sample go back to the first half of the
19th century. Between 1874 and 2000 autograph albums had a
relatively stable structure. There is a certain synthesis of art and
language expression. The main topics of "autograph album
artists" are flowers, landscapes, beautiful female and funny male
characters. Pencils, crayons, pen-and-ink, tempera and felt pens
are used. Types of messages that can be found include: personal
553 non-traditional verses, verses taken from literature, and, the most numerous, traditional autograph album verses passed on from
age to age. 690 different traditional autograph album verses are
sorted according to the main topic and their relationship to it.
The categories received in this way are brought into connection
with developmental psychological background. There is a great
similarity to the artefacts of children and youth in English, Russian
and German speaking language communities.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
16173
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2004.
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