Is the Slavic Antithesis Truly Slavic?
Is the Slavic Antithesis Truly Slavic?

Summary/Abstract: A poetic figure later to become known as the Slavic Antithesis has been discussed since the 1830s. This figure consists of three parts: a question, negative answer and affirmative answer. Initially it was found in the oral poetry of Slav and especially South Slav peoples. Later, to a lesser extent, it was discovered in Neo-Greek, German and Lithuanian poetry. In South Slavic poetry it was recorded in bugaršticas, which had originated in the 17th century. The author of this paper shows that it also frequently appears in all types of Romance oral poetry (Spanish, French, Catalonian and Portuguese), as well as in Albanian folk poetry. Its appearance has not been recorded by any of the researchers who have dealt with this issue. In addition, this poetic figure appeared much earlier in this form than it did in bugaršticas. It was found in the 12th century in Provencal as well as in Old French literature. Any 'racial' term related to it, therefore, should be excluded, accepting one of the terms such as the negative parallelism, negative analogy or negative comparison etc.

• Details
• Contents