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Research on the Modification of Folktales’ Motifs

Seonghee Chun 1

1서울과학기술대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study explores how folktales’ motifs are used in diverse cultural contents such as literature, movies, or comics. More precisely, it is concerned with mysterious characters like Babayaga and Koshchei who appear in Russian fairytales. When the motifs of the reviewed literature are analyzed, the following three criteria are used for classification: New Writing, Rewriting, and New Version. Or course, it is New Writing that is far from the original work. Most of the collected works, including Joan Aiken’s The Kingdom Under the Sea, Patricia Polacco’s Babushka’s Doll, Babushka Baba Yaga, and Taï-Marc Le Thanh’s BABAYAGA, belong to New Writing. The New Writing type mainly focuses on Babayaga’s secluded life. In fairytales, Babayaga is depicted as the goddess of Mother Earth, the heroine of the Nature, or the ruler of the Animal Kingdom. That is why she lives in the deep and uninhabited wood. She is related to the Coming of Age ceremony. Her ‘Hut on hen’s legs’ is an obstacle for immature protagonists to face before they come of age. Protagonists are supposed to solve the problems posed by Babayaga. If they succeed, they can get her magical help so as to complete their final mission. Babayaga is likely to appear as their antagonist. Protagonist may be subjected to a terrible ordeal created by Babayaga, and then come of age by recovering from that ordeal. Sometimes, Babayaga helps protagonists to get a grip on reality. That is why she lives in a hut in the deep and dark forest which is on the borderline between life and death. On the other hand, Marianna Mayer’s Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave has been classified as a controversial work between New Writing and Rewriting. It is apparently closer to New Version. However, it cannot be classified as a work of New Version because the author incorporates ‘probability’ into her work. Among the reviewed works, it is Korean Writer Rye, Kami’s The Spider Woman’s House that best reflects the essence of Babayaga. Babayaga and other characters are amusing in movies because most of the movies are animations for children. In one sense, it is positive that the scary characters in folktales are approachable to children. In other sense, however, it is regrettable that symbolic motifs are completely eliminated. In Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, Japanese animations such as Index or Narutaru, on-line games such as Cabal or Vampire: The masquerade, the essence of the supernatural characters in folktales is completely eliminated, and only their ‘belligerent power’ stands out. It is desirable to put stories into perspective whether they are written or told. The literature property of folktales provides a special opportunity to readers. In this light, a variety of motifs have a good reason to be reborn as modern cultural contents. The bottom line is to maintain its true nature.

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* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.
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