FUNCTIONING OF FANTASTICAL ELEMENT IN LYRIC-EPIC LITERATURE OF CROATIAN ROMANTICISM (AS IT IS REPRESENTED IN WORKS OF AUGUST ŠENOA)

Abstract

The article looks at the work of August Šenoa to illustrate its analyses of the elements of the fantastical in the lyric-epic literature of Croatian Romanticism. The works that explicate popular plots and chronotope of folk fanstastic literature have been reviewed in general. The author’s versions of traditional images have been analysed in “Mrak”, “Divine Justice”, “Lady's Mantle”, “Shoemaker and Devil”, “The House of Plague”, “Vila’s Ring” and “Carnival Night”. In ballad “Mrak” the author problematizes the gender stereotypes in the society of that time through demoniacal intertext. The ballad “Divine Justice” and the legend “Lady’s Mantle” have social voicings, the conflicts that arise around the categories of poverty-prosperity (they match the categories of honesty-mendacity/generosity-parsimony) are resolved by Divine Intervention. In poetic fairy tale “Shoemaker and Devil” the author takes the magic contents of a popular fairy tale and adds to it ethical-didactic gist, religious component and humorous story telling. The social fairy tale The House of Plague realises the idea that public interests must prevail over the individual ones. In the allegorical fairy tales “Vila’s Ring” and “Carnival Night” the author raises the problem of poetical creativity and loyalty to ideals.