Conceptualizing “Unforgiveness” (the Narrative Plot “Grass Snake in The Hut”): Mythology, Intertextuality, Contextualization

Sažetak

The paper deals with the Ukrainian versions of the narrative plot “grass snake in the hut” and its variant “the just grass snake” (ATU 285 and 285A*) that corresponds to the concept of “unforgiveness”. Records made in different parts of Ukraine expose the dialectic of folklore tradition that is reflected in polyfunctionality and variability of international parallels of the narrative plot. The fable depicts mythological beliefs about the grass snake as the zoomorphic embodiment of the demonological character appreciated in traditional culture as the home demon-protector and wealth bearer. At the same time the formal stability of the narrative plot allows for semantic alteration and ambivalent thematic positions while its intertextual transformation functions in the context of conceptual models of “collective trauma”. From this perspective, we examine the same fable narrated by Bogdan Khmelnytskyi used as a political metaphor illustrating “unforgiveness” and “revenge” and the historical evidence of “collective trauma”. The main element of the composition is a dialogue with a stable formulaic character which stresses the continuity of cultural heritage and reflects the mode of cognitive model. The historically accurate text by Khmelnytskyi was recorded in 1656 by a contemporary of the Ukrainian hetman and historian of his wars with Poland and mentioned by Mykola Kostomarov in his novel Bogdan Khmelnytskyi (1857). The current contextualization of the concept of “unforgiveness” actualizes the opposition one’s own vs. other’s and reflects the war situation in Ukraine defined as the “war for identity”.

Ključne riječi: Ukrainian folklore narrative, snake symbol, war for identity