1. In Polish folk culture, the image of the “normal”, ordinary world coexists with that of a “topsy turvy world”, a world “turned upside-down”, a contradiction of the former. Fictional motifs based on this idea have counterparts in Old-Polish facetiae about fools who carry water in sieves (Grzeszczuk 1970) and in international folklore (e.g. T 1174, T 1672), where one finds formulae of the impossible (adynata, Latin impossibilia, Russian nebylitse, Polish koszałki-opałki, German Baron Münchhausen stories etc.), functioning in various speech genres (Bogatyrev 1962, Krzyżanowski SFP 1965). Examples of texts based on the idea of a topsy turvy world are: jouclar songs about a short Johny who girded himself with sticks and leaned on a sack (Kashubian variants are discussed in Szymańska 1997), jokes about fools who in good faith undertake to do the impossible (make a whip of sand, drive light into a dark house, straighten a curly hair, cf. Krzyżanowski 1962-1963, vol. 2: 158-159), nursery rhymes (Powiem wam kazanie: zjadł mi pies śniadanie, ja psa o piec, wyleciał z niego malowany chłopiec // I’ll give you a sermon: a dog ate my breakfast, I threw the dog against the stove, a pointed boy flew out) (Bartmiński 2011, part 3: 69-70), or folklore-inspired children’s poems (Smolińska 1987).
2. The idea of a topsy turvy world is based on a confrontation or a clash between the imagined, unreal visions with those that function as real and “normal” in the form of presuppostions. The textual realization of the idea has the form of a language game and a carnival. Its communicative intention is to break free from the limitations of norm by suspending and eliminating the latter’s boundaries, by linking opposites and contradictions in an amusing manner, by restoring the feeling of freedom and ease, by performing a rejuvenating return to the primeveal state of chaos (Bakhtin, Eliade). In fact, however, the texts are multi-intentional, ludic and exploratory; they are playful but they also test the boundaries of the normal by creating “impossible worlds” that transgress the socially accepted norm.
What, however, counts as “normal”? What are the boundaries of “norm”? In what spheres of reality? To what extent is norm contextual (thus: relative) and how can it be reconstructed with respect to the global worldview accepted in a given community? I will pursue answers to these questions by seeking reference points constitutive of the image of a topsy turvy world. I will relate to the data in the Dictionary of Folk Stereotypes and Symbols (SSSL 2012, vol. I, part 4, the entry “The world”), especially to the disctinction, found in the folk worldview, between common-sense, mythological (“mytho-poetic”) discourse and religious discourse (SSSL 2012: 13-14; Bartmiński 2013: 28-29). I will emphasize the genological factor, a diverse ontological status of mythological accounts (e.g. on the creation of the world), of beliefs (e.g. catastrophic visions of the end of the world), of fairytales (which introduce an overt element of fiction, i.e. do not provoke confrontation with the “normal” world), of wishing texts (as in carols, where the world is presented hyperbolically in the convention of “fulfilled magic”, Bartmiński 2011, part 1: 226-230). I will also discuss the peculiarity of riddles and proverbs, based on metaphorical convention.
3. The notion of norm and of extending its boundaries requires that it be considered relative to the basic categories identified in the folk worldview, such as animate – inanimate, a human being – an animal, old – young, male – female, up – down etc. I will present a more detailed analysis of these issues.
References:
Bartmiński, Jerzy (ed.). 2011. Lubelskie. Vol. 4. of the series Polska pieśń i muzyka ludowa. Źródła i materiały. Parts 1-6. Lublin: Wydawnictwo Muzyczne Polihymnia.
Bartmiński, Jerzy. 2013. Obraz mira v pol’skoy narodnoy traditsii. In Ethnolinguistica slavica. K 90-letiyu akademika Nikity Ilyicha Tolstogo. 26-41. Moskva: Indrik.
Bogatyrev, Petr. 1962. Formula nevozmozhnogo v slavyanskom fol’klore. In Slavyanskiy filologicheskiy sbornik [na V Syezd slavistov]. 347-363. Ufa.
Grzeszczuk, Stanisław, Błazeńskie zwierciadło. Rzecz o humorystyce sowizdrzalskiej XVI I XVII wieku, Kraków 1970.
Ivanov, Vjačeslav, Toporov, Vladimir, Issledovanija v oblasti slavjanskich drevnostej, Moskva 1974.
Krzyżanowski, Julian. 1962-1963. Polska bajka ludowa w układzie systematycznym. Vols. 1-2. Wrocław: Warszawskie Towarzystwo Naukowe.
Krzyżanowski, Julian, Słownik folkloru polskiego, Warszawa 1965.
Smolińska, Teresa. 1987. Ludowa kreacja nonsensu w wierszach dla dzieci Jan Brzechwy i Juliana Tuwima. Literatura Ludowa 2: 21-29.
SSSL. 2012. Słownik stereotypów symboli ludowych. Vol. I, part 4. The entry “The world” by Izabela Bartmińska, Jezy Bartmiński. Ewa Pacławska and Monika Żuk. 11-76. Lublin: Wydawnictwo UMCS.
Szymańska, Janina. 1997. Przegląd pieśni ludowych. In Ludwik Bielawski, Aurelia Mioduchowska (eds.) Kaszuby, part 1. 113-128. Warszawa: Instytut Sztuki PAN.
Tolstoy, Nikita, Jazyk i narodnaja kul’tura. Očerki po slavjanskoj mifologii i etnolingvistike, Moskva 1995.
T = The Types of Folktale. A Classification and Bibliography Antti Aarne’s Verzeichnis der Märchentypen (FFC3) Translated and enlarged by Stith Thompson, second revision, Helsinki 1964.
