Regionalne crte usmene hrvatske književnosti
Regional Features of the Croatian Oral Literature

Summary/Abstract: The paper discusses the varieties of the regional features of the Croatian oral literature, as well as the impossibility of implementing national characteristics into the framework of its own distinctive ethnic features. It analyzes the empirical studies on regional and national characteristics to be found in folklore on the one hand and the modern interests for ideology that can be traced in this type of research on the other. Using examples of the Croatian oral tradition and following the traces of historical change, this paper explores the historical cultural contacts within the complex state organizations covering parts of today's Croatia. It also points to the influences of the neighbouring states, to the ones born from the migrations, both internal and external, as well as to the features created due to the specific administrative and social status (for example, the Military border or Vojna granica). The author discusses the characteristics of the Croatian traditions of the Dinaric, Adriatic-Mediterranean, Pannonic and Central European area. These are the starting points for the author's presentation of the Croatian variant of the international tale of Midas's donkey-ears (ovo treba joπ provjeriti!) and her discussion of the oral tradition from the swampy ground of the Neretva estuary, the tales and poems of Prince Mark (KraljeviÊ Marko) originating from continental Balkan area, as well as the change occurring in epic poems coming from other areas. The paper deals with the belonging of the famous ballad Asanaginica (da li je sigurno bez 'h'?), with the stylistic differences between the epic and the lyric dominant forms, with the oral tradition of the border regions (especially those between Croatia and Slovenia), with bilingual informants (for example, in Istria), with the features of the Adriatic folklore and its openness to the streaming from other Mediterranean countries. The German version of this paper is going to be published in the volume "Sprache, Literatur und Kunst in Kroatien" (Language, literature and art in Croatia), as a part of the series "Abhandlungen der Göttinger Akademie der Wissenschaften".

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