Tales, Narratives, and Myths between Oppression and Liberation: The Case of the Walled-Up Woman in the Balkans and Beyond

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

The panel will deal with the topos of the walled-up woman from the point of view of both liberation and other positive connotations related to it, as well as of its antonyms, such as oppression, domination, or appropriation. The topos has evolved around the song/ballad about a woman's sacrifice in the foundations of a building, which as a rule is a fortress, bridge, or monastery. It belongs to the category of those narratives that order the world, create communities, provide a basis for building cultural and social frames and mental structures that shape both individual and groups.
And, while the geographic scope of this tale is much broader, we focus primarily on the area of the Balkan Peninsula and Hungary, where this narrative continually lives and exists in various forms, undergoing cultural transpositions, inspiring and continually evoking reflection in many layers of the cultures we studied.
These interpretations or references were not always tools and functions of liberation, but certainly those who practised them sought to create meanings that reflect broader communities, or structure the relationship between the individual and the particular group to which he or she belonged, or was assigned to for various reasons.
The panel presents results of the research conducted within the project “The topos of the ‘immured woman’ in the cultures of Southeastern Europe and Hungary” financed by National Science Centre (2020/37/B/HS2/00152).

Sub Unit

• Anthropology, Cultural Studies

Chair

• Rigels Halili, U of Warsaw (Poland)

Papers

• From Myth of Ethnogenesis to Expression of Oppression: An Albanian Trajectory of The Walled-Up Woman Song’s Interpretations - Rigels Halili, U of Warsaw (Poland)

• Nebulous Heritage: The Spring of the White-Legged Woman in Harmanli - Sylwia Siedlecka, U of Warsaw (Poland)

• Reflecting on Human Condition: Liberation in Poetic Works with the Motive of Walled-Up Woman - Marzena Maciulewicz, Institute of Slavic Studies, PAS (Poland)

• The Walled-Up Victims: The Narratives about Barbara Pit Massacre - Maciej Olszewski, Institute of Slavic Studies, PAS (Poland)

Discussant

• Grażyna Szwat-Gyłybow, Institute of Slavic Studies, PAS (Poland)