Detail as the Basic Semantic Unit in Folk Art
The conception of folkloric creation has undergone a basic change
in recent dccades. There has been a fundamental change in the
view of the relationship between subjectivity and objectivity in
folk creation, o f the relative participation of thc individual and the
collective in it, of the relationship between folkloric creation and
"high" art, of the incorporation or folklore into the life of
society. Questions of artistic form in folklore have also taken on a
new appearance. hIoreover.new problems, in fact new sets of problems,
are looming on the horizon. There are in particular thc questions
of functions as well as those of the sign and semioticity. It
would be too extensive an undertaking and would lead to a repetition
o t things already known from elsewhere were we to attempt
to elucidate the new conception o l folklore in its entire breadth
and magnitude. The following study will deal with the questions of
the sign and semioticity in folkloric art, not in their entire scope
but only with the problem o t the semiotic nature of detail in the
folkloric work of art.
We must nevertheless say at least a few words about semioticity
in folkloric art in general.' A folkloric creation of whatever kind
has the very pronounced character of a sign. It even happens that
semioticity connects a folkloric work, for cxample, a song, so
firmly to certain kinds of situations in life that the semiotic funclion
suffices to veil the content of the text of the song. hlartha
Bringemeier quotes the song "MTir sitzen hier so frohlich bcisammen,"
the first line o l which speaks about thc plcasure of sitting
This essay war translated from "Detail jako zikladni rtmantickd jednotka r IidovCm
umhi" (1942), Studie ierteriky (Prague, 1966).
I. If we say "folkloric art," we have in mind those folk creations which correspond
to the individual categories of "high" art, for example, folk songs, folk paintings, folk
theater, and so on. We must be aware, however, that folkloric creation ar a wholc by no
means occupies only the sphere o f art and that the relation of thc "artistic" folkloric
work to the life of the collective is completely different from that o f "high" art. 1t is
more concrete and more immediate. For this reason there is also no boundary in folkloric
creation between works with a prevailing aesthetic function and works in which the
aerthetic function, though present, d a r not prevail over the others.
DETAlL AS SEMANTIC UNIT IN FOLK ART 181
with a friend but the text of which is a patriotic song from the
period of the Napoleonic wars. The meaning of this text is, however,
absorbed by the meaning of the first line to such a degree
that "sometimes when sung, thc entire first stanza disappears and,
nevertheless, the song retains the meaning which the first line gives
it."'
The folkloric work of art as a whole, therefore, generally relates
to specific kinds of real situations which it significs. The individual
and the collective can strive to affect reality (magic rituals and
objects) through the mediation of the folkloric work as a sign. A
significant property of folklore is that each folkloric work is a set
of rather loosely connected signs, and thus thcy are capable of
migrating freely from one whole to another. It has been known for
a long time that folk tale motifs, for example, are capable of
migrating from tale to talc sc~aratelyand in sets and of regrouping
freely even within individual tales. This also applics, however, to
other kinds of folkloric art. Karel Sourek mentions how a certain
detail in folk painting and sculpture is sometimes exaggerated for
emphasis regardless of its actual proportion to other elements:
"Let us look, for examplr, at the proportions of the individual
characters in the scene 'The Flight into Egypt' on the underlayer
of the glass: the landscape, the ass, St. Joseph-all of these
diminish next to the dominant silhouette of Mary hiding the Holy
Son while fleeing. The exaggcrated head of the statuc of St. John
of Nepomuk (thc proportion of head to body is 1 : 3) prcssing his
silent lips tozcthcr with poignant zeal is evidcnce of the same
principle of sculpture. Here again the semantically important details
of the saint's facc are exaggerated . . . because for the folk
artist they arc the vchicle of the cxpression and hence the total
meaning of thc statue."' This is, of course, a completely different
conception of the unity of the work of art from that to which we
are accustomed from works of contemporary "high" art. As proof
of this let us juxtapose a passagc from Salda with the prceeding
citation from Sourek: "A poetic work is not the individual
speeches or deliberations of certain characters but an inseparable,
integral whole of characters, actions, fates, the entire poetically
2. Gemcinrchoft u+ Volkrlied (Miinnter, 1931). p. 107.
3. LidauC urnhi u Ccchdch a M Morave' [Folkart in Bohemia and Moravia] (Prague,
L 1942), P. 118.
182 THE WORD AND VERBAL ART
vital tissue, as it unfolds before the reader from the first letter to
the last ~entence."~
Does the folkloric work of art therefore never achieve the closed
form which we require of the works of high art? An observation
made by Jungbauers provides an instructive answer to this question.
The author succeeded in recording both the original form of
a broadside ballad about a murder, composed in 1845, and the
rendition of this song as it cxistcd in folk tradition in 1905, sixty
years after its origin. The original song had twenty-one stanzas,
the version of 1905 only seven. In comparison with the verbose
original, the text which had passed through tradition is a closed
balladic fomi. This form did not, however, result from a creator's
intention but came about through creative forgetting, in brief
through a collective collaboration on its transformation, a collaboration
which cannot be denied intentionality and at the end of
which a folk (in fact, in the case of the broadside ballad, semifolk)
work corresponds to the creative principle of artificial
poetry. The independence of individual details, the "additive"
character of the entire colnposition of the song, however, remain
in effect even in the collective collaboration on the transformation
of the existing work. As soon as an artificial song becomes
folklorized, it not only loses some of its motifs but also acquires
others.
The appending of details in folk art does not always correspond
to the laws of logic and experience. We shall speak about this later.
A detail maintains its scmantic independence, and a work comes
about through the appending of details which are usually part of
tradition and have therefore originated a long time before the
author of a particular work used them. Thus the theory of the
spontaneous origin of a work from the author's experience is
shown to be invalid for folkloric art. Karel Jaromir Erben, who
held to this theory, explains in the introduction to his anthology
the origin of the song "cervenb r6iiEk0, prof se nerozvijiS?"in a
way that was for a long time considcred a generally valid explanation
of the genesis of folk songs: "A girl hears a tune, for example
No. 93 of this collection, being played in apub. These heartrending
sounds-which in my opinion can best be produced on a violin.
4. "Dorlov autorbv," Lovrky i dZinlci boii, 4th ed. (Prague, 1935), p. 418.
5.G. Jungbauer, "Zur Volkrliedfragc." Germanirch-romanirchr Monatrrchr$t 5
(1913): 68 f.
DETAIL AS SEMANTIC UNIT IN FOLK ART 183
and even their form indicates a more perfect instrument-stick in
the girl's memory; her entire soul is filled with them and takes on
their color; day and night this tune is on her mind; wherever she
goes, she hums it, seeking only the words which would allow her
to pour out through her mouth what abounds in her heart and
soul. Suddenly her gaze accidentally falls on an open red bud of a
rose bush in the garden in front of her window. This is the spark
for her soul; in this bud she sees a real image of that e m ~ ~ t i o n
which the music has caused in her soul. Immediately seizing this
opportunity, she makes the half-opened rose the beginning of hcr
song; the tune establishes thc word order, the form of the lines
and also governs the rhyme, when the girl begins:
"cervcnb riliitko, pro? se nerozviji:?
Pro? k nam, m6j holctku, pro? k nim u i nechodiS?"
"Kdybych k \ i m chodival, ty by si plakala,
Eervenj.m SiteEkem oFi ~ t i r a l a . " ~
"Little red rose, why don't you open?
Why don't you come to visit us any more, my darling,
to visit us?"
"If I came to visit you. you would cry,
you would wipe your eyes with a little red
handkerchief."
According to Erben, the actual impulse for the origin of the text
of the sorlg (the melody is provided in advance) is an accidental
sensory perception and the emotional experience attending it. But
this is contradicted by the fact that the first line of the song has a
traditional character and even stands at the point of intersection
of scveral traditional formulae for a beginning. (1) Its beginning
has the form of a question, like, for example, the first line of the
song ''ti je to konitek?" [lb'hose little horse is this?]. (2) It has the
character of an apostrophe, like, for example, the beginning of the
song "Ach cesio, cestirko uSlapanL" [Oh path, little path trampled
down]. (3) It is introduced by the adverb "why," and fifteen
songs in Erben's collection begin with this word, in addition to
others which have "why"-just as our song-within the first line.
(4) It begins with an adjective signifying a color, as do, for
6,Boitondrodni ZrrkP pi'sni o ;~'kadln (Czcch folk songs and sayings], 4th cd.
(Prague, 1937), pp. 8-9.
184 THE WORD AND VERBAL ART
example, the songs "tern6 ori, jdtte spat" [Black eyes, go to
sleep] and "Cervenj., bilj., to se mnt ll'bi" [Red, white, that's
what 1 like]. ( 5 ) Its first line contains the name of a plant,as do,
for example, the songs "Cerveni, modri fiala" [Red, blue violet],
"Trivo, trivo, trivo zelena" [Grass, grass, green grass] and indeed
even "Riiitka Ferveni, krvi pokropeni" [Little red rose, sprinkled
with blood].
The genesis of a folkloric work of art thus begins with an accumulation
of traditional motifs and formulae even though we
must presuppose an individual creator at its origin. And the origin
of a work of folk art is only the beginning of a process of constant
changes occurring through the regrouping, the addition, and the
loss of details. These details are the basic semantic units of the
contesture of the folkloric work of art. They can be of different
scope. Thus the very coupling of words can be a basic traditional
semantic unit in folk poetry. but so can a line or even an entire
stanza ("wandering" stanzas).
In the linking o i details into a contexture, o f course, there often
occur semantic "junctures" which in folk art are neither an accidental
phenomenon nor the "defect" about which scholars of the
older generation, such as Gebauer and BartoS, used to speak.
Although the "junctures" are perceived, the semantic connection
between them is only apparent. It is the listener's task to establish
it. This semantic process of connecting the unconnected manifests
itself most distinctly in folk poetry (although it also occurs, for
example, in folk visual art). Thus the introductory lines of folk
songs often have to be connected with what follows afterwards. It
sometimes happens, of course, that the connection is direct even
though the beginning of a song has a formulaic character:
Pod tli ?ern" horli Under that black mountain
husiEky se perG. geese are fighting.
Pod'me, moja mil=, Let's go, my darling,
zabijem n E k t ~ r l i . ~ we'll kill one of them.
More often, however, the connection must be sought afterwards-in
our relating the beginning of the song metaphorically
to what follows:
7. F. Suzil, MorovrkP m'rodni pirnz [Morovion folk rongr], 3rd cd. (Prague, 1941).
p. 271.
I DETAIL AS SEMANTIC UNIT IN FOLK ART 185
Co je po studj.nce, Why should one care about a well,
d y i v n i vody nini? when there's no water in it?
jako po panence, as about a maiden,
d y i v n i ldsky nPni. when there's no love in her?
ISu3i1, p. 2871
There are also cases in which the connection between the beginning
and the very context of the song is simultaneously direct
and figurative:
Rost6, rosto konopt The hemp is growing, growing
za cest6, beyond the road,
u i s6 pPkn+ zelenj.. it's already nicely green.
A za nima roste And beyond it grows
?ernovokj. dEvZe, a dark-eyed girl,
ai vyroste, bude mj.. when she grows up, she'll b e mine.
[sum, p. 2871
But we also find examples in which there is a lack of any apparent
or hidden semantic connection between the beginning of a song
and what follows it:
Na nasilskym poli On Nasily field
stromezek rtoji a little tree stands
a na nEm Xulty kvPt; and on it there's a yellow flower;
o! dozkaj ty, dorkaj, oh! wait you, wait,
moja najmilejia my most beloved,
hodzinu sedym let. seven years for the moment.
[sum, p. 2991
Here the semantic juncture between the beginning of the song and
the continuation of the text is almost displayed. The semantic
"leap" which subsequently occurs is striking precisely for its absolute
incomprehensibility.
A comparison of the variants of the same song, each of which
has a different beginning, can be interesting. In SuEil's collection
we find on p. 271 the song:
Sokolove oEi, Falcon's eyes,
jastfahove pefi; hawk's feathers;
katda panna blazen, every maiden is crazy,
co pacholkGm vEfi. who trusts young men.
The variant closest to this version has the beginning:
Suhajova hlava. A swain's head,
za klob6Ekem p+fi, feathers in his hat,
DETAIL AS SEMANTIC UNIT IN FOLK ART
kafdd Panna blizen, every maiden is crazy, ~~d~~ it is already clear that-in contrast to Gebauer's viewkera
chlapcdm v6r'i. who trusts boys.
not even the semantic leaps between the beginning and the text
The entire meaning of this stanza (and of the rest of the text) is: are a manifestation o i a "corruption" but only an exaggeration of
swains are handsome but deceitful. The first variant feigns a sc. the general tendency of folkloric art toward composing a work
nlantic break between thc first and second distychs. lt actually fro,,, details which are semantically morc or less independmi.
only feigns it, because it does not name the proper of the ~~d~~ wc already know vcry well that the starting point from
statement, the swain, but only suggests it by the eyes, which a folkloric work of art is constructed by addition is not an
hawk's feathers (in the hat). In the second variant the subject image (even one only gradually realizing itself in the work) of a
concerned is explicitly named. The semantic leap is still present semantic whole but that it is details created and fixed by tradition
to a cert:iin extent, bccause the adversative "but" (handsome but which are subsequently put together to form a whole in a mosaicdeceitful)
remains unexpressed. The third variant completely like fashion. This is valid for the work as a whole, not only' [or one
presses the semantic leap: of its parts, for example, the relationship between the beginning
Kolik je kl$seEkd As many ears as there are
and the text of a folk song. Let us cite some examples this
vjeimennem snoperku, in a barley sheaf, artistic typical of artistic iolklore, again verbal uolklorc.
tolik falelnosti so much deceitfulness ~ i ~ ~ tlet us call to mind thc rather frcquent cases in which the
pfi kafdtm synerku. is there in every young man. of a fixed epithet (epitheton constans) clashes with the
llere an entire pattern book of the possible semantic connections occ;lsionaI contcxt precisely because of its traditional nature; for
(and disconnections) between the beginning and the text of a song "Iouka zclena snehcm se bElB" ("the green meadow is
whitening with snow"),' where the semantic leap between theis gathercd within thc negligible span of a sinsic little song.
Scholars noticed the peculiarities of the semantic relationship Ivsicalized coupling of an adjective with a substantive and the
betwren the beginning and the text proper of folk songs long ago, remaining contexture of the sentence is rvadily apparent. Thc way
in which subjccts are handled in folk songs provides another illus-but their evaluation was difiercnt from ours. ~~t us rite as an
example Gebauer's study ''On the Beginning Favored by ~ ~ l k tration of the mosaiclike composition o i a contexture in them.
Songs, Especially Slavic Ones" (1875). There wc id^^
~h~ folk song, unlike artificial poetry, exhibits an excessive
beginnings with fully realized images we frequently enci)unter in preference for emphasizing the subject from whom the lltterance
folk songs disfigured, stunted and corrupted beginnings ;lnd images, proceeds or to whom it is addressed. Linguistically this tendency
In order for 211 ti) be fully realized, thc object should be manifests itself in thc frequent use of the ~crsonaland
placed next to it and thc trrtium pointcd out. ~~d one
pronouns of thc first and second person (I - you; my - your) as
of these things is missing, the image lacks something for its well as the first and s e c o ~ ~ dpersons of verbs. At the same time the
~leteness.Sometimes, of course, the meaning of the image is not spcakins and addressed subjects alternate with one another hegreatly
obscured and undcrstanding is not hindered, quently and vi\.idly in the course of the same song.This alsn rcsults
something has heen omittcd. . . . B U ~more ircqllent are in
in a certain kind of semantic leap. In a folk song the repertoire of
which the image is obscured by disfiguration and its meaning and
speaking subjects is often increased because not only
Purpose become unclear. The detrimcnt to the art of poetry people but animals (for example, a horse to his rider) and banithe
debast'mcnt of poetic technique are palpable w]len dark and mate objects, even immaterial states o i mind. speak here:
often nonsensical disfigurations occur instead of clear images and plyfi, lisko falelnd, Flow, false love
when there is a preference for stereotypirol image beginnings ai do Prahy, right to Prague,
jednoho mlidence, [false love] of one youth.
which are sometimes suitable but more oftcn not,u8
jednt panny!- [false love] of one maiden!-
8.J. Gcbauer. "0 zazitcich v jak9ch si lib~ji,,irodni zvli;t~ slovanske,,,
Stati lilerin~;dZjepisnd,ed. A. Novik (Prague,19411, 1: 80.81, 9. ~ ~ b ~ ~ ,Prortondrodni Eerkdpirnb p. 385.
188 THE WORD AND VERBAL ART
Ja liska falesni I, false love,
pluju v Pece; flow in the river;
byla jsem pustzna I was launched
po potoce. on a brook.
[Erben, p. 1761
The deceased, too, are often addressed and speak in the folk song,
even when evoking an impression of something miraculous is not
intended. In epic songs, for instance, the depiction of death is
presented through the mouth of the dead person himself:
Na kohos, hlarizko, Whom, MariSko,
na kohos vouaua, whom were you calling,
d y i ti ta vodirka when that water
lists zalivaua? was flooding your mouth?
Byua bych vouaua I would have called
na svoju mami'cku, my dear mother,
ale sem nemohua but 1 couldn't
pro prudku vodizku. for the rushing water.
Byua bych vouaua I would have called
na sviho tatizka, my dear father,
ale sa mi vliua but the water
voda do srdezka. was pouring into my heart.
Byua bych vouaua I would have called
na sveho miuiho, my beloved,
ale sem nemohua but I couldn't
pro boha iiviho. for God's sake.
[Suzil, p. 1201
The folk song can also use an indefinite subject ("someone")
for the purpose of making the listener feel the semantic leap, in
this instance provided by the semantic span between the extremely
concrete first person of the verb and the diffuseness of the scmantic
contour of the subject "someone":
Kdyi jsem j.4 k v=m
chodivaval
pfes ten hijizek,
na cestu mn€ svitivaval
jasnej m€siZek;
rnzsirek mn6 svitivival
ja jsem sob€ zpivivival,
popoSel jsem kousek
cesty,
nzkdo ~ a v o l a l . ' ~
lo. Italics rnine,J. M
When I used t o walk
to your place
through that little grove,
my way was usually lit
by the bright little moon;
the moon used to light my way,
I used to sing to myself,
I'd gone a bit
of my way,
someone called me.
IDETAIL AS SEMANTIC UNIT IN FOLK ART
r Zavolal jest srnutnqm He called in a sad
hlasem:
"Stitj a aastav se,
jde za tebou potzgeni,
n'eco ti nese:
nese ti smutni psani
?ern€ zaperet6ny;
milo inkoustem je
psino,
vice slzami."
voice:
"Halt and stop,
your darling is following you,
is bringing you something:
is bringing you a sad letter
sealed in black;
with little ink it is
written,
more with tears."
[Erben, p. 1631
From artificial poetry we are accustomed to perceiving the fact
that someone addresses or is addressed as a part of the theme. In
folk poetry, however, the fact that someone addresses or is addressed
is often motivated very freely. Precisely for this reason folk
poetry can exploit the changes in speaker for the mere achievement
of semantic Ieaps. A comparison of two variants of the same
song appearing in Erben's collection (p. 162) provides us with a
good illustration. The song contains a girl's complaint about her
lover's infidelity. In one variant the girl is the sole speaking subiect
right to the end; in the last stanza of the secondvariant the lover
suddenly starts speaking and ironically answers the girl. The two
versions are as follows:
Zafoukej, vZtfirku,
v pravou stranu;
ie meho Jenirka
pozdravuju;
ie ho pozdravuju,
za lisku d'ekuju,
za jeho falexni
milovini!
Blow, little wind,
to the right;
that I greet
my Johnny;
that I greet him,
thank [him] for [his] love,
for his false
loving!
Second Variont
Zafoukej z Dunaje, Blow from the Danube,
mfij ~Ztfi'cku, my little wind,
pozdravuj ode mne greet from me
mou AnZiZku: my Annie:
i e ji pozdravuju atd. that I greet her, etc.
Since the alternation of subjects in the folk song is therefore
largely freed from thematic motivation, folk poetry can transfer
the spectator to the perspective of one subject, then of a second,
and sometimes even of a third. Within the contexture of a song
'190 THE WORD AND VERBAL ART
there occurs, therefore, a sequence of semantic shifts which results
from the semantic independence of the detail, an independence
that is a property of folk poetry:
TeEe voda, velki voda Water, a flood is flowing
kolem dokola jabora. all around the maple tree.
VJecky IaviFky pobrala, It has carried away all the
footbridges,
jenom jednu tam nechala. it has left only one there.
Po kerej Honzitek chodi, Over which Johnny walks,
Marjanku za ruku vodi. leads Mary by the hand.
By1jest tam jeden There was one
stromeFek, little tree there,
na nPm bylo moc On it were a lot
jablizek. of apples.
Utrh Honzitek, utrh dvE, Johnny picked, picked two,
jedno je pustil po vodP. one he launched on the water.
Kam, jablirko, kampak Where, little apple, where
kriEiX, are you going,
ie se ani nevotiZiX? that you don't even turn around?
KraFim ji, kriFim I'm going, I'm going
po d o h , down,
a5 k mej Marynce right to my Mary's
do domu. house.
Kdy5 pfiplynulo k okjmku, When it had reached the little
window,
raklepalo na Marynku. it knocked for Mary.
Vyjdi, Marynko, vyjdi Come out, Mary, come
yen, outside,
HonziFek stoji pYed Johnny is standing in front of
domem. the house.
ProEpak bych j i ven Why would I go
chodila? outside?
Dyt' jb nejsem jeho You know, I'm not his
mili. beloved.
ProFpak bys mil6 nebyla, Why wouldn't you be [my] beloved,
dyt's mi divno slibovala! since you promised me long ago!
Slibovalas mnP o duXi, You promised me on [your] soul,
ie se ta liska nezruXi. that this love wouldn't he broken.
[SuXil. p. 3 I?]
DETAIL AS SEMANTIC UNIT IN FOLK ART
There are six changes of the speaking subject in this twelve
stanza song (if we disregard the neutral stanzas): the lover, the
singer, the apple, the apple, the girl, the lover. However, not only
the speaker can change in a song, but so can the one to whom the
utterance is addressed. If the change occurs without preparation
and transition, there is a semantic leap here as well. In the following
song a girl speaks all the time but at first to her lover, then
suddenly to her mother:
Jen jednou za tejden, Only once a week,
potE3eni moje, my delight,
mb5eS pfijit: can you come;
ai se pomilujem, when we've made love,
mhj zlatej holeiku, my golden lad,
miriel si jit: you can leave:
v sobotu podveter, on Saturday evening,
to sejdem se, we'll meet,
kdy5 hodinka pfidc, when the time comes,
rozejdem se. we'll part.
Krijcjte, m i mila, Cut, my dear,
mami'rko rozmili, beloved mother,
drobnej salat; the salad fine;
j6 nejsem uvykli, I'm not used,
m i mamiEko mil;, my dear mother,
dlouho spivat: to sleeping long:
j i vstivim raniEko I get up early
za svitini, at dawn,
kdyi EeSe mhj mil+, when my dear.
holerek rozmil+, beloved lad,
konE vrany. grooms [his] black horses.
[Erben,p. 1701
Here the change in listener occurs only once. The change is,
however, very striking not only because it happens unexpectedly
but also because the two utterances are semantically independent
of one another to a great extent. The semantic leap at their boundary
is therefore striking.
Under the conditions which we have just depicted, it is not surprising
that the folk song is mainly oriented toward dialogue. The
composers of the echoes," especially Celakovskq and Slidek,
11.Editorr' note. The "echo" (Czech: ohlar) is a particular type of Czech poetry
which imitated the folk verbal arl of thc Slavs bath in rhemc and in form. Cf.,e.g., F. L.
192 THE WORD AND VERBAL ART
were clearly aware of this property of the folk song. This is true
not only of Czech folk songs. Geseniann cites three common
compositional schemes of Serbian folk poetry: the fairy's calling,
the raven's message, the dream and the interpretation of the
dream." All three imply the dialogization of epic material. By
calling, the fairy warns the hero of danger, and the hero replies;
the ravens come forward, they are asked questions. and they
answer; the dream is narrated by the person who had it, and it is
then interpreted by another person in reply. The reason for which
dialogue is so prevalent in folk poetry does not stem from its
themes alone, nor is it merely a matter of an external technique:
rather it follows from the very principle of the semantic structure
of thc folkloric work of art, from the tendency to build its semantic
contexture froln partial units which are relatively independent
of one another.
In addition, let us mention so-called balladic terseness as another
property characteristic of this genre. Heussler even declares
it the main feature distinguishing the epic song from the epic.I3
From the example cited by Jungbauer and quoted above it is
obvious that abbreviation is the result of the economy of memory.
But terseness is likewise facilitated by the very structure of the
contexture composed of units relatively independent of one another.
If we view the ballad from the standpoint of artificial
poetry and hence from the perspective of a unified semantic
intention, its terseness may appear to us as a dramatic quality in
the sense of the definition favored by Jaroslav VlZek (a ballad is a
drama narrated in the form of a song), but for the poetics of folk
poetry it is only one of the consequences of the basic semantic
law of this manner of creation.
Another consequence of the validity of this law is a phenomenon
common in the folk lyric whereby all of a sudden and without
transition a laudatory song can become deprecatory, a
sympathetic one antipathetic, a seriously intended one ironic, by
the mere addition of a stanza which is in sharp opposition to the
prcceding stanzas. In the foreword to his Anthology of CzechoEe!akovskj.'s
Ohlor pknr. rurk);ch [The echo of Russian songs] (1829)or Ohlor prini
l e r k ~ c h[Thc echo af Czech songs] (1839).
12. G. Gcsemann. "Kompo~itionsschemaund hcroirch-epischeStilisierung," Studien
rurr"drlowirchen VolkrePik (Rcichenberg, 1926),pp. 65 f.
13. A. Heusslcr,Lied und Epor (Dortmund,1905). p. 22.
IDETAIL AS SEMANTIC UNIT IN FOLK ART
)r slovakian Folk Songs (1874) FrantiSek Bart05 mentions a number
of examples of this, of course, only to show how he himself "has
purged the text of all kinds of inappropriate additions." It was not
his fault but rather the spirit of the age that caused him to overlook
the fact that such striking semantic turns in the text are only
extreme manifestations of a property omnipresent in the folk
song, namely, the constant oscillation of semantic contexture. The
contexture of a folk song is always ready to surprise the listener,
to take another path than that which its ~reviouscourse has indicated.
But if we imagine the conditions under which a folk song
used to be sung-for example, at a folk dance before a circle of
listeners who evaluated every initiative on the part of the singerwe
understand that the deviations from an already known text,
which brought a traditional text closer to the immediate situation,
were not considered by the audience to be a "detriment" to the
effect but rather an enhancement of it. Thus Erben cites (p. 114,
No. 117) a song in which a lover complains how he came to visit
his beloved at her parents' house, how the dog KuriZ started barking
at him and summoned his master, whose arrival chased the boy
from the yard. The text ends with an apostrophe to the dog
Kurai:
KuriE, Kurii! Kurii, Kurii!
ty lkky nezniE; you don't know what love is;
sic bys by1 neStEkal, otherwise you wouldn't have barked,
kdyi jsem by1 u vis. when 1 was at your place.
The song is thematically closed, but Erben has recorded one more
stanza. Of course, he introduces it with the note: 'The following
stanza is probably a later addition and is only detrimental to the
preceding ones." The stanza reads:
Vidyt' j;i jsem neXtEkal, Well, I didn't bark,
ji jsem jen vrFel, I only growled,
kdybych to by1 vEdEl, if I had known this.
by1 bych rad3 mlEel. I would rather have kept quiet.
Spetni jen, Kurii! Just whisper, KuriZ!
kfirEiEku tu miE; here's a crust for you;
j= ani nemuknu, I won't even open my mouth,
kdyi budeS u nis. when you're at our place.
If Erben says that the stanza is "detrimental," he is speaking
from the standpoint of the compositional unity to which he himself
strictly adhered in his own epic poenls and fairy tales. The
194 THE WORD AND VERBAL ART
requirement of compositional closure was not, however, valid for
the folk singer and his listeners. Instead, the song was more
charming for them if KuriZ, who had hitherto only bren addressed,
unexpectedly joined in the end of the song with a goodnatured
afterword in order to proclaim his previous behavior a
mistake. This corresponds exactly to the principle of additive
composition in which the listener could expect n surprise from an
unforeseen semantic brcak after every line, not to say cvery stanza.
By remaining alive and being transformed from rcproduction to
reproduction, the folk song and other forms of folk poctry do not,
therefore, have the unity of semantic intention which makes a
work of artificial poetry an integral creation characterized by a
particular set and sequence of parts. In the perception of n work
of artificial poetry, the tendency toward semantic unification
operatrs from the very beginning, when the total mcnning of the
crration is still unknown. Every part, every detail which enters
the perceiver's consciousness during pcrception is immediately
evaluated and undcrst~~odin its relation to this total meaning, and
only its incorporation into this meaning determines the specific
semantic quality and import of cvery detail of the work. If some
detail slips out of thc scquence of the others, if it resists incorporation
into the total meaning, the perceiver expects that another
detail will appear by means of which the seemingly errant detail
will he connected with the total meaning. Even when all the parts
(details, motifs) of a work are not incorporated into the total
meaning or when this total meaning remains hidden from the
perceiver, the orientation toward thc semantic unity of the work
is not invalidated. There will merely bc a feeling of artistically intentional
semantic "deformation." It is, however, otherwise in
folk poetry. The semantic scquence created by succcssivc individual
motifs remains open. The total meaning which is, of coursc,
gradually created in the perceiver's consciousness from a sequcnce
of units can change in the course of the work. Even in folk poetry,
though, thrre are cases in which the meaning of the work is unified,
indeed very tightly unificd, but in such cases semantic unity
is not a precondition, a norm; it is simply one of the possible
results. The inconsistency of successivr motifs in folk poetry is
neither a "mistake," as the old school brlirved, nor an intentional
deformation (as more rccrnt throreticians have said), but a simple
fact.
DETAIL AS SEMANTIC UNIT IN FOLK ART
195
ILet us demonstrate what we mean by an example. It is a song
rccordcd in SuSil's collection (p. 98) which narrates how a daughter,
married far away from her mother, arrivcs for a visit a ycar
later but does not find anyone in the house except a little boy
sitting at the table. Shc starts to talk to him:
Ptam se ja tP, pachole, I ask you, little boy,
hdP moja mamPnka je? where my mother is?
MamiEka nam umfela, Our dear mother has been dead
to vrera od vezera. since yesterday evening.
Lefa tomto u komcrce She's lying there irr that little room
v malovanej truhelce. in o pointed coffin.
Dcerka, jak to uEula, The daughter, as soon as she heard this,
hned k rnamiEce hPLela. immediately ran to her dear mother.
Ach mamiEko, stavajtz, Ach dear mother, get up,
poiehnani mnZ dajtz. give me your blessing.
Dy stP nim ho nzdaly, After all, you didn't give it to us,
kdyi stz nam umiraly. when you were dying on us.
Ach mamizko, stavajtz, Ach dear mother, get up,
sloveEko ke mnz mluvtP. speak a word to me.
Ma dcerulko, nPvolaj, My little daughter, don't call,
IZikosti mnP nedzlaj. don't give me a hard time.
Ja bych rada mluvila. I'd like to speak,
dyby ja iira byla. if I were alive.
LefUn blirko ko.rtt.lo I'm lying clore to the church
a ncslyEm ruonbiio. and I don't heor [the bells] ringing.
Ani ptaEka zpivati. Or the birdie singing,
tej zezulky kukati. the cuckoo calling.
TEE t'e ui tu Pan Bi-h May the Lord himself comfort
sam. you here,
niatka Boii, svaty Jan. the mother of God, Saint John.
'The inconsistency which violates the unified meaning of the
song is apparent herc. It is said that the deccascd lics in a littlc
rot~m,but scvcral lincs later thc dcccascd claims that she is close
to the church. This c~~ntradictioncan vcry easily be explained
genetically. In both cascs it is a mattcr of fixed folkloric motifs
which we find in other songs in very similar, even identical
wording:
196 THE WORD AND VERBAL ART
I. Tvaj Hefminek v komofe je, Your Herman is in a little room,
let( v malovanej truhle. he is lying in a painted coffin.
[Susl, p. 831
11. Netadaj to, ieno ma, Don't ask, my wife,
by ses ku mnF dostala. to join me.
Leiim blizka kostela I'm lying close to the church
a n€slySim zvon€fia, and I don't hear [the bells] ringing
ani ptitka zpivaiia. or the birdie's singing.
[SuSl, p. 1521
What is important is the fact that the first of the motifs is
presented both in our song and in the other one as a report about
a dead person, thc second likewise in both occurrences as a part
of an utterance o,f the deceased himself. Therefore there is an
"incongruity" in our song where these two motifs are presented
simultaneously in such a way that the deceased is both narrated
about and then allowed to speak herself. Each of these two modes
of presentation is accompanied by an appropriate motif. The fact
that the two motifs contradict one another does r o t matter in folk
poetry where thc emphasis rests much more on a gradual creation
of the total meaning than on the unity olmeaning intended Irom
the beginning and revealed at the end of the work.
Those who claim that such contradictions are "mistakes" might,
of course, object that here we have a mere oversight, a distortion
of the original "corrcct" reading from repeated reproductions. Let
us therefore present another example which will show us that an
"accidental" successive arrangement of motifs is also creativc
energy. We are referring to a song recorded in SuSil's collection on
p. 122. It is a ballad about a "young man" who comes to visit a
girl at night, against her father's will. The father gets up and chops
his hcad off. The girl then laments her lover's death and runs to
the Danube, into which her father has thrown the severed hcad.
After this passage comes a very strange but tragically cffectivc
depiction:
SyneFkova hlava The young man's head
pa Dunaju plyve is drifting on the Danube
a za tli hlavitkli and behind that dear head
Xtyry kripF krve. four drops of blood.
Za tymi krapjami Behind those drops
kloblitek s pentlami a hat with ribbons
a za tj.m klobutkem and behind that hat
botky s ostrohami. some boots with spurs.
DETAIL AS SEMANTIC UNIT IN FOLK ART 197
Za tymi botkami Behind these boots
truhelka s pokrovem a coffin with a lid
a pfi tej truhlitce and with that coffin
Xtyfh ml8dencovh. four young men.
A nad hrabem stila, And she stood above the grave,
ZalostnF plakala, plaintively weeping,
chud0bnj.m tebritkom to poor beggars
almuinu dhala atd. she was giving alms, etc.
The head drifts along the surface of the river and several different
objects drift along behind it: blood, a hat with ribbons,
boots with spurs. All of this can be put into the frame of a single
picture, into a single, empirically possible scene. But does "a
coffin with a lid and with that coffin four young men" also drift
along the Danube? Here we obviously confront another scene: we
see a funeral before our eyes. Here the folk song has achieved a
semantic effect by means of a "dissolve," known today from the
film which has attained it through a complex technical development.
But how did the song achieve it? Through the simple juxtaposition
of motifs without regard for a close connection between
them. In the semantic composition of the folk song, motifs appear
as units precisely delimited from one another, not continuously
connected so that there can be gaps, semantic leaps, contradictions,
and so on in their succession. And thus the device of the
"dissolve" of two different scenes which is used in the song follows
quite regularly from the very principle of the semantic
structure of folk verbal art. We also find proof of this in the preceding
verses in which we see drifting one after the other the head,
four drops of blood, a hat, boots. The detail of the "four drops of
blood" on the surface of the river which do not dissolve in the
water, if conveived optically, has a ghastly and phantasmal effect.
Lyrically expressed, it is blood which cries for revenge. But again
this powerful impression is achieved by a mere successive arrangement
of motifs sharply delimited from-one another. What is
presented here is not a verbal equivalent of a visual impression but
an enumeration of motifs which the perceiver projects into a visual
image only afterwards.
From this example we can conclude that a certain incong~uity
or even a contradiction among successive motifs, which always
potentially accompanies the progression of the semantic structure
in folk verbal art, follows from the very essence of this kind of
198 THE WORDANDVERBALART
creation. It is a principle that cannot be evaluated either positively
or ncgatively but must be considercd as existing and operating. At
the same time, however, it is apparent how mistaken anyone is
who approaches folk verbal art with the presupposition of "deformation."
Folk poetry attains a considerable span between
empirical reality and its representation simply on the basis of the
fact that its aim is a combination of signs, not a reproduction o f
the empirical relations among things. Awarcness of the correspondence
between the sign and reality persists in this; the folk artist
(not only the poet) is always convinced that what he writes or
paints is reality. We find a very nice observation about the direct
relationship betwcen the work and reality in the folk artist's
consciousness in PapouSkova: "[A folk glass-painter] answers the
question 'According t o what did you paint ,JanoSik and the
brigands?' surcly and without hesitation: According to reality (p.
40).-[The same painter] called himself a naturalist because he
painted according t o nature, but the legend about Genet"'ieve was
just as real for him as his neighbor's cat which he painted in his
spare time" (p. 61).14 Here, of course, the explanation is the same
as in poetry. A folk visual artist puts his work together from signs,
and for him the impression of the "reality" of his crcation is
based on the fact that each of the partial signs of which he composes
his work has its own relation t o reality.
ThereFore the mode of creation in folk art is different from
that of high art to the extent that it is absolutely unjustified to
approach a work of folk art with the habits which we bring with
us From high art, even if they seem to us completely self-evident
and necessary. In this respect, the semantic structure of folk
poetry is a very good means for explaining thc scmantic structure
oF folk art in general. Let us thus take a closer look at the notion
oF motiuation. This notion is, of course, very special; it is limited
not just to literature but specifically to narrative and dramatic
literature. As we shall see, nevertheless, taking this concept into
account can also result in a general explanation.
Motivation is a basic requirement of plot construction in artiFicial
narrative and dramatic literature. Every motif entering thc
work should be related to another or several others, and it should
14. N. MclnikovCPapouikov.4, 6erkorlouenrkd lidoil6 moliirtui M rkle [Czrchoslo
vakian folk glass-painting] (Prague, 1938).
DETAIL AS SEMANTIC UNIT IN FOLK ART I99
be rclated in such a way that the motifs bound together by it
determine one another semantically and are thereby incorporated
into the total meaning of the contexture. On account of reciprocity,
motivation has at the same time a progressive and a regressive
&aracter. When the initial mcmber of a motivational bond appears,
it evokes an expcctation in the perceiver; the next then
directs the perceiver's attention backwards t o what has already
been perceived. At one time the necessity o f motivation was
formulated epigrammatically as follows: if at thc beginning 01the
narration it is said that a nail has becn driven into the wall, it is
necessary that the hero hang himsclf on this nail at the end of the
work. Even in artificial literaturc the "requircn~ent"of motivation
is not, of course, an inviolablc norm, the observance of which
determines thc value of the work. It is not an imperative, but
rather it is the semantic background against which the course 01
thc action in artificial literature is perceived. Thc effectiveness of
motivation increascs with the distance between the motifs which
are bound by it into the contextural scquence. The longer the
connection of a certain motif with the others rcmains hidden from
the readcr, thc morc thc reader's expectation contributes to the
"tension," and thc more strongly the action is bound into semantic
unity by means of motivation. The linking of motifs over a
distance could perhaps be represcnted schematically as follows:
Here the letters represent motifs, their alphabetic order indicates
their succession, the curves symbolize the semantic relations between
individual motifs, and the arrows at the two ends of the
curves are to indicate the reciprocity of the motivational relations.
It is clear that the more densely the contexture is permeated with
motival interrclations, the more the cohesiveness of its semantic
structurc is enhanced.
Frcqucntly the "explanatory" motifs, that is, those which semantically
determine and incorporate other preceding motifs, are
accumulatcd at thc end of the narration; in some cases the "key"
motif, which has either a direct or indirect motivational connection
with many of the preceding ones, is placed here. This results
in thc pcrceiver's being kept as long as possible in the dark about
200 THE WORD AND VERBAL ART
the semantic range of the entire contexture-an impression well
known from detective novels. If we take into account the fact that
in the case of an extremely unified motivation the snlutinn is
usually provided at the very end of the sequence, we could alter
the motivational scheme as follows:
By concentrating the curves on the letter f, we wish to indicate
the "key" motif, elucidating at once the meaning of everything
prcccding. We should add, of course, that neither of these schemes
nor the two together grasp the real variety of the alterations of
which motivation is capable in different situations. Their purpose
is only illustrative.
Let us now deal with the question of motivation in the folk
epic. We must, of course, be aware of the great variety of phenomena
which are included under this term. Here we have the entire
range between the heroic epic and the fairy tale. Indeed, even if
we limit ourselves only to the fairy tale, we shall find a considerable
variety of genres, and this variety certainly has an influence
on the formation of semantic structure. Polivka says: "In a formal
analysis, tales should certainly be more prcciscly differentiated
from fairy tales and other novelistic and humorous short stories.
But so far the question of whether various folk stories differ in
this respect has not cvcn been rai~ed."'~Nevertheless, the question
of whether we can detect-despite this great variety-at least indications
of a general attitude toward motivation that characterizes
folk creation as a whole is nor unjustified. Prom what we have already
said above about semantic structure in folk art in general
and folk poetry in particular, it seems to follow that such an
attitude exists. The composition of semantic structure from partial
semantic units relatively independent of one another necessarily
has consequences in this respect as well. As we have seen, mntivation
unifies a literary work semantically, but folk poetry-according
to its constructive principle-tends, on the other hand, to
disturb the static semantic unity of the work. We should not, of
15.J. Polivka, "Dorlov" [Afterword] in J . Kubin, LidouC pouidky r ZerkPho
Podkrkono?~: (ikraji u);chodni [Folk taler from the Bohemian Krkanoie region: the
eastern part] (Prague. 1926),p. 445.
DETAIL AS SEMANTIC UNIT IN FOLK ART
201
course, think that there is no motivation in the folk epic. In the
fairy tale we encounter at each step motifs whose ultimate incorporation
into the plor occurs only in its further course. Let us
take, for example, the fairy tale about Zlatovliska as we find it
narrated in Erben.l6 Here the hero starts to understand the speech
oC animals bccause he has eaten snake flesh in violation of an
interdiction. 'Phis violation causes him to be sent out to win
princess Zlatovliska for his master. Knowledge of animal speech
turns out to be useful when he communicates with the animals
that he helps, and this aid rendered to animals is again to the
hero's advantage in accomplishing the tasks assigned to him when
he strives to win Zlatovlaska. This is a continuous and even
complex motivational chain (the complexity lies in the fact that
one and the same deed in relation to what follows is incorporated
into two motivational series: the eating of snake flesh both brings
the hero the task of winning Zlatovliska and helps him in fulfilling
it). Earh motif has its precise place in the sequence of the
others; any displacenlent of the individual motifs would upset this
motivation. There is nothing here thar differentiates the motivation
of a fairy tale narrated in this way from motivation in
artificial literature.
But let us look at the variants of this fairy tale recorded in
Tille's Index 01- Czech Fairy Tal~s.'~Among them we find a
variant which proves that the attitude of the folk epic toward
motivation is indeed different from that of artificial literature. It
is the version recorded by ~ u b i n "to which Tille adds thc notc
"Confused." The "confusion" is not, however, such that it has
upset the continuity of the fairy tale; rather we might speak about
a rearrangement of the plot. In Kubin's version, Zlatovliska is the
daughter of the king whom the hero serves, and thus the competition
for the bride between the king and the hero which was one of
the mainsprings of the plot dynamics in Erben's version is lost. The
king assigns the hero the job only as a punishment for eating snake
flesh against his interdiction (in Kubin only he who has eaten the
flesh first understands animals-the king was therefore cheated out
of the effect of the snake flesh). In the organization of motifs,
16.Eeskdpohidky [Czech fairy taler] inDt7o R J. E r b e ~(prague, 1939),3:45.
17. V.Title,Soupir *cerk+chpohddek (Prague,1934). 2,Pt. 1. PP. 374-79.
18. ~ i d o v Ppouidky r EeskAo Podk,kono$t? Pohoii zdpodni [Folk taler from the
Bohemian Krkonok rcgion: the wesrcrn range], pt. 1 (Prague, 1922),pp. 269-74.
202 THE WORD AND VERBAL ART
however, the hero's journey in quest of Zlatovlaska is also lost,
and thus the cncounter with the animals, which was presented in
Erben as an adventure experienced by the hero during his journey,
has lost its motivation.The necessity of placing the encounter with
the animals somewhere else arose because of this rearrangement,
and Kubin's narrator does not hesitate to place this encountcr at
the very beginning of the narration. During the encounter the hero
speaks with the animals that he helps, and thus a particular inconsistency
occurs in Kubin. 'The hero speaks to the animals first,
and the narration about snake flesh comes only afterwards. In
Kubin's version, thcrctorc, the hero actually speaks with the animals
belore he has the ahility to understand them. From the standpoint
of artificial literature Tille was correct to call this vcrsion
"confused," for in artificial literature such a transposition of
motifs disturbing the motivation is possible only as an intentional
breach of it (for example, for comic effect). It simply does not
matter to the folk narrator and his listener (who arc otherwise
accustomed to hcaring about speaking animals without any previous
motivation in songs and fairy tales). Fol- them motivation is
not the basic principle of the successive arrangement of motifs to
the cxtent that its breach is felt as a delormation. They do not
avoid motivation; they use it, but they can also do without it.
And thus the fairy tale, just as other forms o l folk verbal art
and lolk art in general, experiences and evaluates each motif as an
independent semantic unit. The folk narrator does not, therefore,
care too mnch whether he has prepared the listener for a newly
introduced motif or not. In Kubin, tor example, the miraculous
horse says to his master Honza: "But now, dear boy, you've got a
hard nut to crack. You must destroy that Brandiburk so that your
entire fate as well as mine is f~lfillcd."'~But the listener is hearing
about this "Brandiburk" lor the first time and learns only from
the further narration that Brandiburk is the commander of a great
army, but even here he is mentioned only in passing: "Well.
Brandiburk has suddenly moved, and he has declared war on that
king."20 In the folk [airy tale the only matter occupying the narrator's
and the listener's attention is a direct sequence of motifs.
19. "Koker,"LidouPpoilidky. ..I r k r ~ j ~ ~ ~ r h o d n j ,p. 154
20. Ibid., p. 155.
DETAIL AS SEMANTIC UNIT IN FOLK ART 203
Whenever there is a transition from one motif to another, it is
always felt more strongly than in high literature, where attention
is focused more on the reciprocal bonds o l non-contiguous motifs.
The basic principle of semantic structure in the folk narrative
could therefore be represented by the scheme:
And in the folk story this pr~ncipleis thc only scheme on thc
basis of which the motivation can be realized. For this reason
motivation in the folk narrative tolerates a breach much more
easily than that in high literature.
Another manifestation of the tendency toward successive arrangement
is so-called staircase construction (a model being thc
fairy tale about thc rooster and the hcn) represented by the
scheme:
a - h ~ c C ' l d - e - d ' - * c l ~ b ' - a l
Even where therc is a genuine motivation in a folk narrative, it is
innuenced by the tendency toward successive arrangement: the
tasks (onc and the same hero gradually does various tasks, or
several herocs do one and the same task and only the last succeeds).
But the principle o r successive arrangement is realized not
only in the lolk epic but also in other genrcs of folk poetry,
especially in the lyric. In lyric poetry the transition lrom motif to
motif is realized especially shalply as a surprise factor, as a place
wherc semantic reversals occur.
In folk art, therefore, detail is much morc than a subordinate
structural element. It is not static but is the basic vehicle of initiative
in the semantic structure of the rolkloric work of art. Folk
art does not procced from an image of the whole but from an
ordering of details provided by tradition, and unexpected wholes
arise from thc always new ordcring o l these details. It is. of course,
clear that an image of closure, perfection-an image not very otten
rcalized and not basically important for folk art-hovers as the
final goal at the cnd of the development o f the folkloric work of
art as well. It could be said aphoristically: Was Ilanka aesthetically
204 THE WORDANDVERBALART
correct when he ordered the motifs in his "Kytice" [The
b o u q ~ e t ] ~ 'in such a way that a girl who "fell, ah, fell into the
cold water" still has the time and the opportunity afterward to
consider who "planted the bonquet in the loose soil," or was it
Goethc who by merely rearranging the motifs had "Das Straussc
h ~ n " ~ ~end on a balladic note: "Da fillt, ach! da fillt sie/Ins
kuhligc Wasscr" ("She tell, ah,she fell into the cold water")? From
the standpoint of high poetry Goethc was indisputably right, and
his intervention revcals an artist of genius precisely because of its
seeming insignificance accotnpanicd by a powerful poetic eflcct.
From thc standpoint o f Lolkloric poetics, however, Hanka was
right because he perceived the fr~lkloriclaw of ordering motifs.
'l'he thesis which we have attempted to formulate in this study
ha5 been documented (rather than explicitly stated) many times
in the great number of folklore studies of recent years. But this in
no way means that the study of folklore has already drawn all the
necessary conclusions from it. hlodern follil~~restudies have not
exhausted all their possibilities hut i-athcr h.rvc just begun to
realize them. The continuation o l the scmantic analvsis of folkloric- - art
can push not only iolklore studies hut alsu the t h c o ~ yof art
miles ahead.
21.RvkoPir Krdloudduorrk$ [Thc KrdlovCdvorskj manuscript], 1835 edition, pp.
44-45.
22. "Dar Strausrchen: Altbomirch," Goelher Werke. part I , vol. 3 (Weimar, 1890),
p. 210.
Between Literature and Visual Arts
I
Comparative literature owes its origins to the Romantic interest
in the historical and geographical heterogeneity of cultural activities.
In the course of its development it has created a number of
methods, each of which has entailed not only a different modus
operandi but also a different approach to material, a different conception
of it. Sometimes the path of a certain theme or thematic
element (motif) is traced through different literatures: sometimes
the literary activity in a broad cultural sphere differentiated into a
number of national literatures is examined with a unifying vision.
The questions arise as to what is the center of this activity, what
the impulses ori~inatingfrom it, and how do literatures bound into
a unity o l a higher order influence each other. Furthermore, the
question of the general regularity of literary activity and its
historical variations arises. In the last few decades the foundations
for a comparative study of literary forms have been laid.' In connection
with thc comparative study of the literary form we should
mention Jakobson's fruitful idea of investigating those literary
forms which are closely tied to language, for example. meters in
literatures related by language (such as Slavic). The influence of
language for the diflercntiation of literary development is thus
re\,ealed. It appears that even slight differences between kindred
languages determine the completely different natures and developments
of the same meter in two linguistically related literatures.
Even in more complicated literary phenomena, for example, in
international literary movements (such as Symbolism), we can
often deduce to a considerable degree the heteromorphism of such
a movement in diflererlt nations lrom differences in their linguistic
systems.
This essay was translated from "Meri poeriia +tvarnictvim." Slouo a rlouernort 7
(1941).
I . See, for example, F. Wollman'r K methodologri rroisnduo<i rlouernorti rlouonrki
[On ihc methodology oi Slavic comparative literature] (Brno,1956), p. 86.
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