Magična moć opscenih reči u ženskoj reveni
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Date
2012
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Publisher
Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM
Title alternative
Magic Power of the Obscene Language in Womens’ Revena
Abstract
The theme of this paper is the magic power of the obscene words and jokes in traditional
Serbian culture, on the example of women’s only festival revena in Banat. This ritual represents
one day holiday that was celebrated in the beginning of spring, before the Eastern Fast.
During revena women gathered for a celebration during which their behavior was completely
different than usual, transgressing all the strict norms that prevailed in everyday reality of
patriarchal society. Except for the excessive drinking and eating, women expressed their
sexuality freely and they spoke about it in the most obscene way. Apart from the verbal part,
the ritual of revena had also its performative side. Thus women were proving their female
sex by raising the skirt (in the Kumane village), and this act functioned as some kind of pass
to enter the revena. During the holiday, some women were dressed up as men in order to
fulfill the necessary male roles for the sexual games, because no man (except for the musician)
was allowed to be present on this holiday. The analysis in this paper, devoted above all
to the magic power of the obscene language in the traditional culture, is inscribed into the
Bakhtin’s theory of carnival. It is applied here not only to the carnivalesque behavior, but
also to the concrete verbal obscene content. These obscenities are inseparable from laughter,
so the magic power of laughter (as defined by Veselin Čajkanović) is also analyzed in this
paper, and, apart from appearing in revena, it represented important part of the funeral ritual.
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Keywords
Obscene language, Revena, Magical laughter, Life, Death, Bakhtin
Citation
Poznańskie Studia Slawistyczne, 2012, nr 3, s.173–186
ISBN
978-83-232-2473-0