PRIČA U PRIČI: KONSTRUKCIJA HEROJSKOG IDENTITETA U ROMANU „BREŽULjAK VOTERŠIP“ RIČARDA ADAMSA

Abstract

Within comparative mythology, the study of the trickster, a figure found in many cultures around the globe, began in the mid-fifties of the last century. In this paper, we deal with the trickster myth incorporated in the novel Watership Dawn by Richard Adams, in which the legendary rabbit chief El-ahreirah is a role model for a group of rabbits in search of a new warren. El-ahreirah is based on existing mythological patterns and is a central part of the so-called Lapine culture (that is, the stories, customs and language of the rabbits that Adams invented for his novel). A cycle of five stories about the rabbit trickster is connected with the frame story, so that a parallelism is established between the two groups of characters: Hazel with his people and El-ahreirah with his. Hazel and his comrades are true to their heritage and therefore succeed in the mission of establishing a new warren (Watership Down), while facing antagonistic groups: the rabbits of the Cowslip’s Warren and the rabbits of Efrafa. Woundwort, as a main antagonist and the cultural hero of the Efrafa warren, represents a figure directly opposed to El-ahreirah, and the end of the novel, in which the general enters the myth, tells us that this conflict has only just begun.