The fairy-tale form as confessional memoryBlažič, Milena (Avtor) Zollner, Hans (Avtor) The Ugly Ducklinggoose–swan metaphorexclusioninstitutional responsereformation memoryThis study argues that the reformational genealogy from Jan Hus to Martin Luther, carried by the goose–swan metaphor, is not merely preserved in narrative form but constituted by it, and that the same form carries a critique of the excluding community. Andersen’s The Ugly Duckling (1843) and the Hus–Luther tradition instantiate one six-phase sequence: iso-lation, trial, latent identity, revelation, recognition, retrospective legitimation. The reading rests on a complete inventory of the lexical markers of exclusion in Hersholt’s translation. The tale depicts violence, ridicule, and exclusion without sexual content; the epithet occurs in three registers, the protagonist’s last. The duck yard is absent from the resolution.20262026-10-20 11:38:09Članek v reviji190012sl