A comparative analysis of fairy tales and fairy tale writers with an emphasis on Tina Wajtawa, the ‘little flower’ from Resia

Blažič, Milena (author), Bedenk, Kasilda (author), Iseni, Arburim (author)

The paper deals with the comparative analysis of the fairy-tale motif of the animal groom/bride, which in H. J. Uther's international index of fairy-tale types is marked with numbers from 400 to 459, or the Beauty and the Beast motif, which is marked with the number ATU 425C. The fairy tale type is known from ancient literature, from Apuleius' tale of Amor and Psyche (2nd century), through many versions of European fairy tales, from the French précieuses ofM. De Beaumont (Beauty and the Beast), to the golden age of fairy tales and variants by Dorothea Viehmann (The Singing, Springing Lark, 1815), Laura Gonzenbach (Zafarana, 1870), and the variant by Tina Wajtawa (1900–1984), the fairy tale writer from Resia, entitled Dekle,ki je hotela rožico (The Girl Who Wanted a Flower). The results of the comparative analysis show that the fairy tales are similar and different at the same time. The essential similarity of the variants by the Resia fairy tale writer Tina TinaWajtawa, whotold the motif of the animal groom/bride three times (Benjamina, The Girl Who Wanted a Flower and Žabica [The Little Frog]), shows that Tina Wajtawa related to the antiquity and the Romanesque tradition, while at the same time sheadded specific cultural elements from Rhesia as well as modern elements; in addition to the attribute of beauty, she attributedted the attribute of subjectivization (thinking) to her heroines.

• Language: English
• Keywords: fairy tales, fairy tale writers, fairy tale tellers, ATU 425, Tina Wajtawa, Resia
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: PEF - Faculty of Education
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 23–36
• Numbering: Vol. 14, iss. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-169972
• UDC: 398
• ISSN on article: 1857-8187
• COBISS.SI-ID: 240697859

Copyright

Podatek o licenci CC BY 4.0 je naveden na pristajalni strani članka (glej izvorni URL zgoraj). (Datum opombe: 30. 6. 2025)

• Publication date in RUL: 30.06.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Anglisticum
• Publisher: Association-Institute for English Language and American Studies, Tetovo, North Macedonia
• ISSN: 1857-8187
• COBISS.SI-ID: 114314499

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: pravljice, ženske avtorice