Nonhuman animal protagonists of folklore texts in the European space have tended to be perceived primarily as performing a symbolic and metaphoric function. But behind the symbols and the metaphors ...hide real flesh-and-blood nonhuman animals, and flesh-and-blood humans interacting with them, mostly from a position of power. The emerging discipline of zoofolkloristics considers nonhuman animals in their own right. Through critical analysis of folklore material, zoofolkloristics examines the role of animals and power relations within the interspecies entanglement with the aim of deconstructing the oppressive system and establishing multispecies justice. We begin this paper with a brief reflection on the 'historical animal' as an embodied being and a human construct. We then perform a critical re-reading of three animal-related folklore texts from the Slovenian tradition and, applying Hubert Zapf's concept of imaginative counter-discourse, consider the potential of imagination as a methodological tool in the transformative program of zoofolkloristics. Implications for animal ethics, liberation, and conservation are also discussed.
The article examines selected poems that deal with the inter-species relations ina multi-species world, from the collections of poems Tisoč osemdeset stopinj (Thousand Eighty Degrees) by Alenka ...Jovanovski and roko razje (Eats Away the Hand)byVesna Liponik. Through the analysis and interpretation, we investigate howtheir poetics work when it collides with the demonization of the other and theovert or covert social and environmental speciesism. In doing so, we discuss thesymbolic and active power of poetry, the poets’ critique of the binary divide between man and other beings, and their emphasis on the inherent value of animaland, in awider context, their political-economic critique of global capitalism andlinguistic, symbolic, material human violence against other species and nature.
The author notes that new, more complex researches of connections between animals, nature and connections to humans are needed in Slovenian and European folklore, literature and cultural studies, due ...to new ecological and ethical findings in the wider social and cultural environment and a changing order of the world, which has moved the focus from anthropocentrism into ecocentrism. The discussion builds upon various theoretical discourses, new concepts and multidisciplinary knowledge, to create the foundations, guidelines and directions for a new academic discipline of zoofolkloristics. Furthermore, new theoretical and analytical discourses should enable zoofolkloristics to provide an insight into changes in human attitudes to animals, in both folklore and within traditional and contemporary ritual practices, or their redefinition, and at the same time exert influence upon legal safety of non-human subjectivities.
Na podlagi tekstualne in kontekstualne analize besedil, spoznanj folkloristike, zgodovine in sociologije smo ugotavljali upodobitve islama in pripadnika islama v literaturi in folklori. Spraševali ...smo se, ali so se morda tudi ob teh tematizacijah oblikovale podobe drugega. V članku presojamo, ali je stereotipizacija islama in njegova večinoma negativna podoba, znana iz folklornih in literarnih besedil, vplivala na odnos do islama kot religije in prek tega tudi do pripadnikov te religije? In, ali se ta negativna podoba sčasoma lahko transformira v pozitivno? Analizirali smo izbrane ljudske pesmi, ljudske pripovedi ter literarna besedila od Aškerca do sodobnosti glede na reprezentacijo in konceptualizacijo islama. Na podlagi analize besedil in teoretskih spoznanj, ugotavljamo, da podoba muslimana, ali Turka iz folklore in literature 19. stoletja prikazuje ontološko, religiozno in kulturno drugačnega tujega, kar pa povzroča odpor. Toda, ko pesnik Aškerc obišče muslimansko okolje konec 19. stoletja, gre za časovni in personalni odmik od obdobja turških vpadov, se stereotipizacija že prekine, drugačna izkušnja stika z islamom ga celo navduši, odkriva podobnosti s krščanstvom, hkrati pa eksotiko, ki je še posebno privlačna. A še vedno se v pesmih skrivajo kritični toni. Negativna podoba pripadnika islama je v folklori in literaturi 19. stoletja prevladujoča, saj je kolektivni spomin na turško divjanje in povezanost islama in muslimana z nasiljem, izjemno trdovraten. Drugače pa je v literaturi 1. svetovne vojne, saj je prav zaradi eksistencialne ogroženosti vseh udeležencev v vojni, v njej odsotnost bojazni pred Drugim, ki je bil muslimanske vere. Odnos do muslimanskega Drugega po letu 1991 pa je predstavljen nevtralno, morda so negativne le tiste podobe, ki izhajajo iz arabskega sveta, sveta, ki je bil preveč oddaljen od nas in ga nismo poznali. Razprava je poskusila zajeti različnost odnosov do muslimanskega drugega tako kot jih je bilo mogoče razbrati iz reprezentacij. Slovstvena podoba islama tako ni recept za dialog z drugim in drugačnim, je le možnost, da prek teh tematizacij ugotavljamo enoplastnost ali večplastnost teh podob. Ne moremo pa v analizo teh podob, niti v njihov kontekstualni okvir, aplicirati sodobnih medreligijskih trendov. Sodobna spoznanja, da dialog lahko poteka le na osebni ravni, da je mogoč le pri sprejemanju kulturne in religiozne različnosti, ki pa izhaja iz preseganja doktrinalnih in dogmatskih zapovedi tako islama kot krščanstva, vidimo tudi v nekaterih analiziranih besedilih.
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