Mediators and intermediaries in a fairy tale: the problem of differentiation.
Journal Title: Науковий вісник Дрогобицького державного педагогічного університету імені Івана Франка. Серія: Філологічні науки (мовознавство) - Year 2018, Vol 9, Issue
Abstract
The article highlights the notions of a “mediator” and an “intermediary” in a fairy tale. Fairy tales date back to the mythological ideas of the ancestors since the fairy tale was a transitional phenomenon between mythology and literature. And therefore, in the fairy tales one can observe the presence of two worlds - "our" and "that one" which provokes the hero to go to search for living and dead water, young apples, overcoming obstacles in the form of rivers, seas, fire, forest which is carried out with the help of intermediary objects. Folk beliefs are revealed through the fairy tale, therefore, folklore has rich background for investigation. Fairy tale discovers mental and ethnic specifics of a particular nation. Reconstruction of the old beliefs system enables to analyze specific ethnic values. Fairy tale worlds depicted in the tales reveal old system of beliefs. Tale images can be explained by means of the archetype. Rituals of transition between the fairy tale words are the specific archetype invariants. Claude Lewis Strauss explained the notion of “mediators” as intermediaries between two elements, therefore softening extreme oppositions (i.e. life and death). Combination of the opposite components and mediators form mediative structure which is a sequence of logical elements that are a key to decoding mythology phenomena. Another scientist to shed light onto mediators’ role in fairy tale worlds is V. Propp. He identified a mediator as a function among 31other functions of the main character. He emphasized that the functions of the character are constant, unchanging elements of fairy tales, their number is limited and the sequence of elements is strictly the same. One of those functions is getting a magic helper or a mediator. The mediator may be an animal (a horse, an eagle, etc.); items from which the mediators appear (an oak, an oven, a tree); subjects which have magic qualities (a sword, a harp, a mirror); supernatural abilities (e.g., the ability to transform into an animal). Mediators can also be revealed as nature and human conditions of transition between the worlds. Thus, birth and death, initiation (as short-term death), meeting with the enemy, traveling and some other conditions and actions are considered to be the most important stages in human life and society and symbolize the transition between the worlds. The study of the basis of the fairy-tale narrative enables the disclosure of the system of beliefs, images, symbols, ideas of the people, shaping the image of the world.
Authors and Affiliations
К. В. Степаненко
Keywords
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