« 2022. # 2 (164)

The Ethnology Notebooks. 2022. № 2 (164), 391—400

UDK 81’37:398.21(430)]:82-92

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/nz2022.02.391

STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF STORIES ABOUT GERMANY AND GERMANS (BASED ON NARRATIVE INTERVIEWS)

SLOBODIAN Nazarii

  • ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6117-3958
  • Master of Philology. Ph. D. candidate,
  • Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University of Ternopil.
  • Department of Theory and Methods of Ukrainian and World Literature,
  • 2, Maxyma Kryvonosa str., 46000, Ternopil, Ukraine,
  • Contacts: e-mail: nazariy.sln@gmail.com

Abstract. The study of the structure and the features of the semantics of the narrative in general is quite a difficult research task, especially considering the nature of the material. After all, we are dealing with texts that depict certain symbolic ideas of our contemporaries. Folklore about Germans and Germany is an integral part of oral folklore, which was formed through the prism of socio-political events that were the basis for its development and functioning. This branch of folklore began to expand especially actively during political and social cataclysms, such as the First and Second World Wars, waves of emigration and migrant labor. That is why nowadays there is a large number of different opinions, stereotypes and prejudices about Germans and Germany, which due to the social context and prevalence have become elements of folklore.

The subject of our study is a content component of stories about Germany and the Germans. The aim of the article is to explore the structural and semantic features of stories about Germany and Germans.

The study uses anthropological, comparative, systematic and statistical methods.

Analyzing the theoretical works of folklorists on this topic and analyzing the interviews, we can conclude that in narrative texts the image of a German and Germany can be revealed through a spatial model. This is clearly seen in the memorandum convention, which is characterized by the complexity of the plot, because the hero in it is both a participant and a witness of the event.

The analysis of our material shows that these narratives are characterized by two types of narrative: homodiegetic and heterodiegetic. The latter is usually represented by relatives or acquaintances.

The most common mythologem is the image of a «distant land», where everything is different than ours. That what makes us different the respondent tries to convey accurately and in detail, while clearly and vividly reproducing the personalities of people, their values, manner of speech, interpersonal relationships and stereotypes of everyday behavior.

Keywords: oral tradition, narrative, narratology, Germany, Germans, semantics.

Received 18.04.2022

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