Vaikas lietuvių pasakose ir sakmėse

LTKnygoje analizuojamas vaiko įvaizdis lietuvių pasakose ir sakmėse: stebuklingas kūdikio gimimas, vaikų santykiai su "anuo" pasauliu ir mitinėmis būtybėmis, išmintingo vaiko paveikslas ir vaikų priežiūros problemos. Daugiausia dėmesio skiriama kūdikiams ir mažiems vaikams. Siekiant kuo išsamiau atskleisti nagrinėjamą temą, lietuvių folkloro tekstai gretinami ir su kitų mokslo sričių duomenimis. Fantastiniai pasakų ir sakmių motyvai glaudžiai susiję su realiu gyvenimu, todėl knygoje keliami klausimai padės pažinti senąjį lietuvių pasaulėvaizdį. [Iš leidinio]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Pasakos; Sakmės; Vaikų folkloras; Fairy tales; Tales; Children's folklore.

EN[...] This monograph focuses on Lithuanian belief legends, tales of magic, and novelle tales or single elementary plots' of these folk narratives, where children act as heroes or are represented as passive characters or objects. For a profound analysis we have chosen those narratives which reveal attitudes towards children and represent models of behaviour with them. In order to make the interpretation more precise, a large amount of material for comparative analysis is used. Narratives of the genres mentioned above or their single fragments are compared with Lithuanian and foreign customs, beliefs, lexical and phraseological facts. We also searched for parallels with the other genres of folklore and, if needed, used data from other scientific fields. The aim of the research presented here is to reveal adults’ attitudes towards children and the models of behaviour or realationships with them in Lithuanian folk tales and belief legends. In order to reach the above mentioned aim, the following tasks have been set: 1) to analyse the image of the supernatural birth; 2) to identify and to present the rules for rearing children and to compare these rules with folk customs and beliefs; 3) to reveal the relationship of the child with mythical beings and the mythical world; 4) to present the image of the wise child. The research is mainly focused on newborns, infants and small children. In Lithuanian folklore the image of children who belong to these age categories has not been studied yet. Therefore, we do not analyse some tales of magic, for instance, “The Children and the Ogre” (AT 327), “The Kind and the Unkind Girls” (AT 480) or “OneEye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes” (AT 511).These folk tales have already been studied by many Lithuanian and foreign scientists. Moreover, these narratives often represent heroes as elder children or young people, already suitable for marriage, and a part of the elements of these tales, as folklorists claim, are related to initiation rites. Even though in the last decades interest in children and childhood has been increasing, children’s folklore and folklore representing children are still little researched in Lithuania. Customs of birth and baptism have been studied probably the most. There are several publications regarding the traditions of pasturage and the role of children in calendar customs. Researches into contemporary children’s folklore and relationships between traditional folklore and children’s literature had also been carried out. Lithuanian foklorist Bronislava Kerbelytė has distinguished and interpreted semantically elementary plots of Lithuanian tales and legends and among them we also find those where children are represented. However, in other studies on folklore children are not referred to very often. Hence, the novelty of the present research lies in an exhaustive analysis of the image of the child in Lithuanian narrative folklore (tales and legends). The methodology of the research presented in this monograph consists of analytical descriptive and historical comparative analyses. We also use the results of the structural-semantic text analysis: descriptions of structures of folk tales and legends and the classification of elementary plots are presented in "The Catalogue of Lithuanian Narrative Folklore" by B. Kerbelytė. In the catalogue, semantic interpretation of the second and the third levels is presented. However, in order to better understand the elementary plots under consideration, we found useful to interpret them on the first level once again.The research refers to both manuscripts and printed sources. The analysis of Lithuanian legends and tales is based on data from "The Catalogue of Lithuanian Narrative Folklore and The Types of Folk Legends. The Structural-semantic Classification of Lithuanian Aetiological, Mythological and Historical Legends" by B. Kerbelytė. We have also studied about 1500 variants of legends and tales systematised in the card-index of the Lithuanian narrative folklore catalogue at the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore another archives as well as printed collections of folklore. In the present research about 300 samples are referred directly. In addition, we used more than 300 descriptions of folk beliefs and customs from the card-index of folk beliefs at the Institute of Lithuanian History and various publications of calendar and family customs, folk beliefs, divinations etc. The book consists of introduction, three parts (Expecting and Rearing a Child, Newborn’s and Child’s Relation with the Otherworld, Wise Children), conclusions, the lists of sources and literature, and an index. [...].