Podrapane wieko trumny. Opowieści o duchach we współczesnym folklorze słownym

Abstract

The article presents the most typical threads and motifs found in contemporary oral folklore, which were collected in 2010-2011 in central and northern Poland. The author points out that the recorded material seems in many respects to continue the traditional ideas known from folk culture and described in older ethnographic works. There are also a number of differences. For ехаmрlе, modern demons are shown far less “bodily” than their traditional prototypes, the division of the world into their own and foreign space (orbis interior-orbis exterior) is not as significant as in the old peasant culture, and the old types of folklore are replaced by new ones, such as the urban legend. The analysis of changes in the way we portray in human beings in contemporary oral stories seems to be a good test of changes in our culture.