Interpretative Levels of the Oral Legends Writings

Abstract

The main hypothesis is that tradition, as the important element of cultural identity and the main condition of folkloristics, is a continuing (historical and ongoing) process of multi-level interpretation of repetitive procedures and symbols in the human community, rather than an inherited collection of indisputable facts, spiritual values and material objects. Building on the existing research of mythical beings in Croatian oral and historical legends, the work will study the interaction of the processes of tradition and retraditionalization in the formation of multiple aspects of cultural identity.
Tradition is not considered to be a set of unchanging values, but rather a creative process whereby each individual, generation and human community/group determines its cultural heritage and identity. Thus, the work examines which elements particular communities inscribe as part of their tradition, how they inscribe (transform) them, in which contexts they perform them and which meanings they assign to them. The work examines the constant process of forming and creating tradition, which people keep deconstructing and renewing, thus perpetuating particular values and reinterpreting them in search of a foundation for self-knowledge. Various interpretative levels and procedures within tradition as a process depend on who is interpreting it, what their aims are, what the community/individual conceptual and value system is, and what the social, cultural, and political context is.