W niewoli u Kościeja Nieśmiertelnego albo „samotność silnych kobiet”: studium treści rosyjskiej bajki „Maria Moriewna”
Enslaved by Koshchey the Immortal, or “the Loneliness of the Strong Women”: the Universal Wisdom of Russian Tale

Summary/Abstract: Koshchey the Immortal, one of main personages of Russian tales, is a negative character. Nevertheless, he plays a positive role in the heroes’ journey in life. In this paper, special attention is devoted to female heroes. The following hypotheses are presented:1. A woman’s yearning for a man constitutes the type of situation in which Koshchey the Immortal appears. It is the kind of call that provokes the antagonist to appear.2. A strong woman is the one who carries some of the Koshchey’s qualities within her, such as an eagerness to fight and for face-to-face confrontations. She often represents a warrior type.3. A simple but good man is the ideal partner for the woman who gets enslaved by Koshchey.Two kinds of enslavement are distinguished: that in which she is physically taken, and that where she carries Koshchey “inside of her” and manifests this in her behaviour. A woman alone is not able to break free.

• Details
• Contents