Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/mwo1vcjo7y
Baba’s Bilka and the Fairy Tales of Animal Brides and Grooms: The Context of Slavonia
Suzana Marjanić
orcid.org/0000-0002-6158-3006
; Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
On the trail of the fairy tale Baba’s Bilka (recorded in 1957 in Gorjani near Đakovo by Maja Bošković-Stulli, and told by Stipa Lović, b. 1894), we shall discuss several other fairy tales, stories of animal grooms (the Beauty and the Beast archetype) and women-animals, as well as their totemic (e.g. Boria Sax), psychoanalytic (e.g. Bruno Bettelheim), feminist (e.g. Heide Göttner-Abendroth), and ecofeminist interpretations. The context of mythical zoophilia (e.g. Midas Dekkers) will be tackled too. I shall furthermore offer a contextual interpretation of the feature documentary film Baba’s Bilka by Petar Orešković (folklore television programme, 2012), featuring members of the Cultural Artistic Ensemble Gorjanac.
Thereby, in the context of the fairy tale about the snake-groom, I emphasize the interpretation offered by Natko Nodilo, who does not connect this mythem with Apuleius’ fairy tale about Cupid and Psyche (The Golden Ass), but rather, in the context of Müller’s mythology of nature, searches for parallels with the Rgvedic mythem about Agni.
Keywords
Baba’s Bilka; Gorjani; fairy tales of women-animals; zoomorphism; mythic cyborg.
Hrčak ID:
254560
URI
Publication date:
26.4.2021.
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