fairy tales; Slovak fairy tales; Romani fairy tales; cultural imagination; mothers;

Slovak and Romani folk tales and fairy tales are intertextually linked with the German tradition due to geographical and cultural closeness; however, most of them manifest specific regional differences and local color. Slovak and Romani folk tales (and folk songs) obsessively return to motifs of dying and dead mothers, stepmothers who make trouble for the orphaned children, and the starvation, cruelty and injustice that these children suffer. This paper critically revisits the traditional opposition between positive mother figures (associated with positive characteristics such as creating and giving life, protecting, sheltering, feeding, and nurturing) and negative mother types: stepmothers, mothers-in-law, and evil witches, who frequently replace absent (dead) biological mothers. Drawing on the work of Shuli Barzilai, Marilyn Francus, Jack Zipes, and Marina Warner, I discuss the motifs of absent and monstrous mother figures in an original Slovak folk tale, ‘Little Fawn Brother’, and a Romani fairy tale, ‘Black Brother and White Brother’. The texts feature dead mothers as well as several versions of substitute mothers, including wicked stepmothers, evil mothers-in-law, and a ghost mother, all of them failing to protect and nurture the (unwanted) children. Although both tales are conventionally narrated from the perspective of the children, who are struggling to develop their own identity and independence, my analysis offers an alternative perspective: the viewpoint of the (unwanted) mother figure.

Slovak and Romani folk tales and fairy tales are intertextually linked with the German tradition due to geographical and cultural closeness; however, most of them manifest specific regional differences and local color. Slovak and Romani folk tales (and folk songs) obsessively return to motifs of dying and dead mothers, stepmothers who make trouble for the orphaned children, and the starvation, cruelty and injustice that these children suffer. This paper critically revisits the traditional opposition between positive mother figures (associated with positive characteristics such as creating and giving life, protecting, sheltering, feeding, and nurturing) and negative mother types: stepmothers, mothers-in-law, and evil witches, who frequently replace absent (dead) biological mothers. Drawing on the work of Shuli Barzilai, Marilyn Francus, Jack Zipes, and Marina Warner, I discuss the motifs of absent and monstrous mother figures in an original Slovak folk tale, ‘Little Fawn Brother’, and a Romani fairy tale, ‘Black Brother and White Brother’. The texts feature dead mothers as well as several versions of substitute mothers, including wicked stepmothers, evil mothers-in-law, and a ghost mother, all of them failing to protect and nurture the (unwanted) children. Although both tales are conventionally narrated from the perspective of the children, who are struggling to develop their own identity and independence, my analysis offers an alternative perspective: the viewpoint of the (unwanted) mother figure.