Conference paper

REGIONAL FEATURES OF THE CROATIAN ORAL LITERATURE

Maja Bošković-Stulli ; Intitute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

The paper discusses the varieties of the regional features of the Croatian oral literature, as
well as the impossibility of implementing national characteristics into the framework of
its own distinctive ethnic features. It analyzes the empirical studies on regional and
national characteristics to be found in folklore on the one hand and the modern interests for
ideology that can be traced in this type of research on the other.
Using examples of the Croatian oral tradition and following the traces of historical
change, this paper explores the historical cultural contacts within the complex state
organizations covering parts of today's Croatia. It also points to the influences of the
neighbouring states, to the ones born from the migrations, both internal and external, as
well as to the features created due to the specific administrative and social status (for
example, the Military border or Vojna granica). The author discusses the characteristics of the Croatian traditions of the Dinaric, Adriatic-Mediterranean, Pannonic and Central
European area.
These are the starting points for the author's presentation of the Croatian variant of
the international tale of Midas's donkey-ears (ovo treba još provjeriti!) and her discussion
of the oral tradition from the swampy ground of the Neretva estuary, the tales and poems of
Prince Mark (Kraljević Marko) originating from continental Balkan area, as well as the
change occurring in epic poems coming from other areas. The paper deals with the
belonging of the famous ballad Asanaginica (da li je sigurno bez 'h'?), with the stylistic
differences between the epic and the lyric dominant forms, with the oral tradition of the
border regions (especially those between Croatia and Slovenia), with bilingual informants
(for example, in Istria), with the features of the Adriatic folklore and its openness to the
streaming from other Mediterranean countries.
The German version of this paper is going to be published in the volume "Sprache,
Literatur und Kunst in Kroatien" (Language, literature and art in Croatia), as a part of the
series "Abhandlungen der Göttinger Akademie der Wissenschaften".

Keywords

folklore; oral literature; regional features; Croatian oral tradition; national vs. regional

Hrčak ID:

33394

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/33394

Publication date:

4.12.2000.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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