Folklore Narrative as a Concept of Collective Memory: Parallels of Intertextualization of Ukrainian and Serbian Ethnopoetic Models of Historical Experience

The article is dedicated to the consideration of two ethnopoetic constants that are important for the conceptualization of an ethnic group’s collective memory in the Serbian and Ukrainian folklore traditions. A traditional ethnopoetic constant typical for Serbian folklore is a representative example of the conceptualization of overcoming collective trauma. It can be defined as the “topos of the uncountability.” This narrative model reflects the impossibility of enumerating the dead or conveying the suffering of the people. The formula, which has literary origins and equates an individual death with a precedent one, is known, in particular, through the paraphrase of Petar II Njegoš in the 1850s. Allusions to this formula are found in almost every Serbian epic work; at the same time, the narrative model has gained renewed relevance during the Balkan Wars in the early 20th century and is widely represented in the oral tradition. The narrative model depicts allusions in the political discourse. The Ukrainian text presents a model of a traditional narrative plot (AA no. 285 in the SUM classification: “a snake in the house”), which conceptualizes the ideas of ‘unforgiveness’ and ‘punishment.’ This international plot exists in the Ukrainian tradition in a number of versions and is marked by corresponding intertextual connections. It is also known as the historically documented didactic “fable” of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi (1656). A dialogue is a key element of the plot composition. It serves as a generalization of historical experience and testifies to the continuity of the folklore tradition.