engleski

The Impact of Traditional Oral Storytelling, Slavic Mythology, and Philological Research: A Case of 'The Tales of Long Ago'

The classic book Croatian Tales of Long Ago written by Ivana Brlich Mazuranich in 1916 that contains eight fairy tales is one of the most popular examples of fantasy in Croatian literature. From the very first edition the stories have attracted the attention of their young readers and sophisticated literary critics. The clearest signs that Ivana Brlich Mazuranich was recognised as a distinguished author were the nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature and translations of her works to numerous foreign languages.Contemporary literary critics have noticed the influence of traditional oral storytelling, which was broadly present in Croatian traditional rural families at the beginning of the 20th century, in her work. Literary analysis of the mythical creatures and fantastic motives represented in her fairy tales has identified several elements from the contemporary academic tradition and Slavic studies. For example, the character of Mokosh or Muggish from the fairy tale Bridesman Sun and Bride Bridekins is a figure from the Proto-Slavic Pantheon ; the name of the title character of The Stribor’s Forest is associated with another Slavic deity ; and one of the songs incorporated in the text calls forth the little Svarog, a Proto-Slavic god of fire. In several stories the ‘vilas’ (a type of fairy) take part in narration – those fairy-like spirits are typical of Slavic folklore and oral traditions and of the genre.Commenting on her creative process, Ivana Brlich Mazuranich mentioned the work of the Russian folklorist Alexandr Nikolajevich Afanasjev as an inspiration for one of the tales. The paper will focus on the published Slavic studies as an intertextual part of Croatian Tales of Long Ago. The author of the tales was highly educated and used the large family library where she had the opportunity to find numerous classic titles from this field. Those scientific works are intertextually present in her tales more than the traditional oral storytelling.

fairy tales ; Ivana Brlich Mazuranich ; Croatian literature ; Proto-Slavic mythology ; Slavic studies ; oral storytelling ; intertextuality

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