Jan Stanislav Institute of Slavistics SAS
Topic
Ornithomorphic Images and Symbols in Slovak and Slavic Cultures (Ethnolinguistic Aspect)
PhD. program
Year of admission
2026
Name of the supervisor
Doc. Mgr. Katarína Žeňuchová, PhD.
Contact:
Receiving school
Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa v Nitre
Annotation
Birds represent a special group within the symbolism of folk culture, where differentiation based on the opposition clean (good) - unclean (evil) is applied more significantly than in other animals. Some representatives of the bird kingdom (e.g. crow, raven, stork, owl, cuckoo...) are attributed various functions and symbolism in folk culture, some of which also play a key role in mythological ideas. The methodological basis for the work is the monograph of the Russian Slavist Alexander Guru Символика животных в славянской народной традиции , the dictionary Славянские древности, the Polish ethnolinguistic dictionary Slownik stereotypów i symboli ludowych and other works in the Slavic scientific discourse. Ideas about the supposed relationships and magical connections between the world of birds and the world of people were applied in various layers of traditional culture in Slovakia - in family and calendar customs, in healing practices, divinations, omens, superstitions, in narrative prose texts, in short genres of folklore prose, which will be the empirical starting point of the dissertation.