Woman in the Linguistic Image of the World of Serbian Hayduk Songs

Abstract

The main problem of this study is the archetype of the woman in Serbian Hayduk songs. Traditionally, these epic songs are associated with male figures, emanating from the patriarchal, warrior-oriented hayduk subculture. The author is interested in how women are portrayed within this subculture – what characteristics they represent, where they are placed in the collective imagination of the people, and their relationship to male heroes. The author considered this topic important due to the growing importance of gender studies and the emphasis on feminist narratives in Serbian traditional culture, which have been marginalized in traditional research. The research methodology adopted involves analyzing selected texts of Serbian Hajduk songs for female themes. Two primary methods were used to classify and interpret the obtained results. The first is a form of folk song research involving the isolation of so-called "masks" of epic heroes, drawn from the work of Professor Boško Suvajdžić. The second method, pioneered by Polish researchers from the Lublin School, is the analysis of the so-called Linguistic Image of the World, based on research by scholars such as Jerzy Bartmiński, Renata Grzegorczykowa, and Janusz Anusiewicz. The study revealed a significant binary nature of female figures in the analyzed songs. They were assigned either a positive moral value if they aligned with the patriarchal model of culture, supporting the male protagonist, or a negative one if they transgressed within it, often following their own desires. The adopted model stems from the characteristics of Serbian folk culture in the period under discussion. The author of this text points out that this chosen research direction seems extremely promising in light of the increasingly pronounced feminist turn and the search for new interpretative forms within studies of traditional Serbian and Slavic culture in general. The potential lies, for example, in the possibility of a comparative analysis of similar themes in various Slavic traditions.