Ethnic Stereotypes in the Macedonian Folklore and their Reflection in the Macedonian Contemporary Literature

Summary

Initially, the paper “Ethnic Stereotypes in the Macedonian Folklore and their Reflection in the Macedonian Contemporary Literature' is focusing on the ethnic stereotypes in folklore, knowing that it often reflects the historical reality in a fuller, more penetrating way than the other sources. In the Macedonian folklore, the positive image and the epic glorification of the Macedonian heroes are opposed to the manifested negative judgments about Others (mostly Turks and Arabs), often based upon ethnic stereotypes. The treatment of the motifs and the characters in them are quite typicalized and even overproportioned by frequent usage of hyperbolas and contrasts. The paper presents Bolen Dojcin and Marko Krale as typical heroes whose images succumb to stereotyping and the Crna Arapina as the perfect depiction of their enemy. These folklore images and stereotypes have significant implications and reflections in the Macedonian contemporary literature, especially in the poetry, so in the major part of the paper it deals mostly with these expressions. One of the main reasons for the usage of these “old-fashioned' stereotypes is to provoke familiar images in the people's minds (both good and evil), and to use this touch of the tradition as a base for the new ideas and poetry innovations. This paper pursues their transformations in the contemporary poetry of a few Macedonian authors, such as Blaze Koneski, Vlada Urosevic, Radovan Pavlovski and others. We read their poetry as intertext, namely as restoration and resemantisation of the traditional oral poetry, and we follow up the modifications done in their composition, versification and basic poetry idea. Apart from the poetry, these images and stereotypes taken from the Macedonian folklore can be noted in the other genres of the Macedonian contemporary literature, who enclose rereading of the ethnic stereotypes, upgrading of mythical fables, unconventional, unconditional and often very complexed usage of the folklore elements, symbols, myths or motifs. The paper leads to the conclusion that Macedonian folklore accumulates knowledge and image of the Other, but at the same time abounds with ethnical stereotypes. In the text, they were viewed through their manifestations and their alterations mainly in contemporary Macedonian poetry, through a number of paradigms and poetic concepts, highlighting their ability to make use of the spirit of the tradition as fundamentals for the fresh ideas and expressive innovations.