Maja Bošković-Stulli’s Conception of the History of Oral Literature, or on the Problems of Literary-Historical Systematization in Oral Literature

Sažetak

The expression “the history of oral literature” contains certain aporias that are rarely encountered in other expressions where “history” is one of the elements. These aporias are evident in two connections: the one that links history with oral literature, and the one manifest in the term “oral literature”. The latter was previously addressed by W. Ong (1982), while the former primarily pertains to the fact that true history of oral literature is elusive. The resolution of the latter issue revolves around our ability to date it. The only chronologically accessible aspect in the context of oral literature is its recorded form. Thus, every history of oral literature is essentially a history of records and their context, to the extent that the context of the record is attainable. This paper explores the concept of literary history that Maja Bošković-Stulli implicitly or explicitly established in her work Usmena književnost (Oral Literature) (History of Croatian Literature, vol. 1) and the way that this history aligns with her ideas about the literary-historical basis of oral literature.

Keywords: history of literature, oral literature, methodology, conception, periodization, genre