The Evergreen Snake and Gamiž. Imaginary and Magical Animals in Serbian Children’s Fantasy Fiction

Tropin, Tijana and Mijić Nemet, Ivana (2022) The Evergreen Snake and Gamiž. Imaginary and Magical Animals in Serbian Children’s Fantasy Fiction. Jahrbuch der Gesellschaft für Кinder- und Jugendliteraturforschung/Yearbook of the German Children's Literature Research Society. pp. 189-200. ISSN 2568-4477

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Abstract

Slavic folklore contains a variety of beliefs concerning magical animals and other imaginary and liminal beings, their characteristics and their properties. This heritage was adopted and used in the past by various children’s authors who integrated these folklore motifs into their work. On the other hand, some recent authors show a marked tendency to implement animals of their own invention to convey an ecological message, often employing a quasi-encyclopedic approach (e. g. Uroš Petrović and Zoran Penevski). Others create imaginary animals to explore moral dilemmas and psychological depths in a form appropriate for children (e. g. Mina Todorović). When folklore heritage reappears, it sometimes takes on a comical function in a contemporary urban context (e. g. Ivana Nešić). In this paper we provide an overview and an analysis of fantastic animals and their heterogeneous origins and functions in contemporary Serbian fantasy written for children, presenting a condensed outline of the most recent developments. We aim to combine a traditional analysis of the literary fantastic and folklore elements with ecocriticism.

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