Regionalna baśń literacka Warmii i Mazur

Abstract

The regional literary fairytale, contrary to popular opinion, does not merely reflect general fairytales from Poland - a fact which is demonstrated by the fairytales of Warmia and Mazury lakelands. The appearance of regional elements - a hero deriving from the local community, a three-dimensiona] and transitory concretization of events, directed to a specific region of Poland, the presence of characters deriving from ancient beliefs and superstitions of a given ethnic group (e.g. kłobuk, the fisher king, melancholia), and also a slang style of expression and quotes from folk songs confirm that the fairytale forms its own characteristic, based above all in the traditional regional culture of the world vision, which does not allow it to be part of the wider world of general Polish . fairytales. The regional ingredients of the presented world very often determine the course of events, and from this the "Iocal" fairytale draws from the wider Polish repertoire those elements which are the easiest to relate to the local area. The richness ofthe regio- nal fairytale is in accordance with its species syncretism which results from the overlapping in compositions of different forms of expression (fairytales, legends, jokes, and songs). However, the most important difference between fairytales of a universal and regional character leads to the usefulness and ways of using folk material. The creators of regional fairytales refer to piety (e.g. K. Oleksik, M. Zientara-Malewska) or with a dos e ofmockery (e.g. T. Stępowski) to specific folklore which is made use of and not to general folklore giving the same expression of their attitudes to tradition related to community (so called dialogue of culture). The idea of propagating or cuItivating that which is passed is sometimes accompanied by the idea of verification which is used in attempts to shaping change in attitudes to folk material perceived above all as a source of Iiterary inspiration. Of course, there are many ways in which this material is used. However, they resuIt from fixed goals of an ideological-literary character. This is a basic feature of all regional literature, written by local writers who can only be a person closely connected with a specific region with an expert knowledge of that region. In this respect, the best research tool with reference to fairytale literature would seem to be the so-called ethnographic-regionalism theory, which does not however exclude their perusal from a perspective of regionalism understood in an interdisciplinary way.