Home in dreams (based on an example of stories in Brests region) Cover Image

Хата як вобраз снабачанняў (паводле сучасных аповедаў з Берасцейшчыны)
Home in dreams (based on an example of stories in Brests region)

Author(s): Ina Szwed
Subject(s): Anthropology, Social Sciences, Language and Literature Studies, Customs / Folklore, Theoretical Linguistics, Semantics
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku
Keywords: image; sign-sacrament; home folk interpretations of dreams

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the image of home established in folk interpretations of dreams, recorded at the beginning of the 21st century in Brest region. It is concluded that home occupies an important place in the structure and the history of narratives about dreams. It often acts as a “semantic mode” (B. Uspensky’s term), which determines the interpretation of dreams. This image is accompanied by other elements connected with significant events in either a dreamer’s life or his relatives’ life. Interpretations of dreams can be based on the idea that home, related objects and characters are signs or omens. The connection of the sign-omen with its interpretation and meaning is often mythological, fixed in certain beliefs, folklore texts and rituals, mainly of burial-funeral character. The narrator can fix the image of home as a clearly marked sign, or can introduce it into a static picture or a dynamic plot. Dreams with the image of home have different meanings that fluctuate from mythical to aesthetic interpretations.

  • Issue Year: 2017
  • Issue No: 9
  • Page Range: 305-318
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Belarusian