Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.47960/2303-7431.21.35.2026.153
THE ELEMENT OF RITUAL DEATH IN ZAGORKA’S VRAGOLJANKA S TREŠNJEVKE
Beatriz Brkić
; Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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* Corresponding author.
Abstract
The motif of death is not uncommon in the romance genre, which, according to Pamela Regis, can be understood in terms of eight narrative elements: the definition of society, the protagonists’ first meeting, romantic attraction, the barrier to the fulfillment of the romantic relationship, the point of ritual death, acknowledgment or recognition, the declaration of romantic feelings, and their confirmation through betrothal and/or marriage.
One of these is the narrative element of ritual death, which may take the form of literal death or the threat of death but may also assume a symbolic dimension. This is precisely the case in the popular historical romance Vragoljanka s Trešnjevke [The Minx from Trešnjevka] by Marija Jurić Zagorka. The elements of the barrier and ritual death encountered by the heroine create a space for the affirmation of her identity and a critical examination of the position of women within the novel’s sociohistorical context. The central thesis is that ritual death in Zagorka’s romantic comedy serves not only to affirm the conventions of the romance genre but also to facilitate the heroine’s feminist emancipation. An analysis based on Pamela Regis’s theoretical framework confirmed the research hypothesis and established that the element of ritual death is structured in two stages. The first stage concerns the individual plotline - the heroine’s identity transformation and completion of her assigned task, whereas the second manifests itself as a threat to the romantic plotline or as a potential threat to the heroine’s independence.
Keywords
Marija Jurić Zagorka; Vragoljanka s Trešnjevke; romance; ritual death; heroine
Hrčak ID:
352642
URI
Publication date:
30.10.2026.
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