Constructing Alien Space in South Slavic Oral Lyric
Constructing Alien Space in South Slavic Oral Lyric

Summary/Abstract: The paper discusses alien space as a construct whose meanings are variable and depend on the assumed perspective, context of singing, and human relations. Alien space is constructed in South Slavic oral lyric as a space of the Other or as the other (liminal) space. The analyzed songs show tension between the alien and own worlds. The alien spaces are marked by relations of alienness and neighborliness. These relations are changeable and limited by the period of the ritual. The ritual context of songs and the ritual inversions of meanings and order make the spatial constructs complex. Oral lyric dominantly subjects the locus to the characters, whereby it has an attributive function. The songs make an analogy between the alien space and the Other. They model alien spaces as unknown, far, fantastic, wild, and dangerous, and as places of death. The paper deals with liminal zones as radically alien. These zones connect or separate own and alien spaces, enabling communication between them. The alien space is constructed as dominantly non-homogeneous and unintegrated, and as such it is an ample reservoir of meanings in oral songs.

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