THE FLORAL IMAGE IN K. J. ERBEN’S BALLAD “LILY”: A WOMAN OF THE NIGHT OR THE FLOWER OF LIFE
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Date
2023
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Plovdiv University Press "Paisii Hilendarski"
Abstract
The semantic aspects of the floral image of the lily in K.J. Erben’s eponymous ballad are the product of mythemes interpreted by the literary imagination. The folk-mythological motifs of the woman-lily are to be found in pagan beliefs and in Christian religious constructions of the world. In Erben’s text there are two modifications of motherhood. The instinct for creating and preserving life is countered by a mother’s cruelty and vengefulness; if the lily stands for the dynamic unity of floral and personifying characteristics, it is juxtaposed to hatred, which discredits womanhood in its core self-expression.
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Keywords
floral and personifying characteristics, space markers, renaming