STUDIA MYTHOLOGICA SLAVICA | Znanstvenoraziskovalni center SAZU

STUDIA MYTHOLOGICA SLAVICA 12, 2009

Mirjam Mencej:

Conceptualisation of space in narratives about the supernatural passage of time

Abstract

This paper focuses on the connection between the concepts of time and space in the motif of the “supernatural passage of time” (F 172, F 377). The narratives in which this motif appears are about people, who in one way or another, enter a space where time runs diff erently than it does in the human world (faster or slower). The paper attempts to determine the role of place in these tales: Is a place crucial to a change in the perception of time in these narratives, and if so, what are its characteristics? It turns out that entering a world where one can experience a diff erent temporal reality is characterized by and possible only within a special space, which in the traditional belief system has the connotation of otherworldliness – be it a mountain or a hill, a cavern, a grave or a mound, a forest or water.

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