A Common Archetype: Imaginary and Linguistic-Discursive Analysis of the Heroic Feminine in Brazilian and Polish Folk Narratives

Abstract

Legends, fairy tales, and myths have always aroused the interest of diverse societies. They are discursive genres that represent the imaginary of peoples and communities. Through them, identities and beliefs are constituted, revealing common aspects of a particular culture. In the narratives we find heroes and heroines who defend cities, stop the enemy, and are at the mercy of their own fate. Based on this assumption, this study aims to an-swer the following research question: how can the linguistic-symbolic convergences of the female heroic archetype of Iara and Syrenka be explained from a transdisciplinary theoreti-cal assumption? To address this issue, we propose the following objectives: a) to present the symbolic and archetypal convergences that emerge in the narratives of Iara and Syrenka’s female heroism through Brazilian and Polish discourse and the imaginary; b) to propose a theoretical-methodological analysis in terms of transdisciplinarity. The work presented here shows that the exercise of this instaurative transdisciplinarity is possible if the methods and the theoretical path are made clear. Finally, the study has shown that the female heroic archetype is present in both cultures, Brazilian and Polish contexts, from which the narratives originate, sharing mythical traits and textual-discursive configurations.