Between a Folkloric Topos and a Cultural Myth. A Few Glosses on the Ballad “Master Manole”

The folkloric topos of the walled-up woman, present in several variants in South-Eastern Europe, has a special status in the Romanian culture. The “Legend of Master Manole” from which it originates, along with “Miorița”, has become a canonical literary text. Considered by G. Călinescu as a “cultural myth”, one of the four essential Romanian myths, in the interwar and communist period, it was intensively exploited ideologically and politically. Interpreted by writers, either as a sample of Romanian creative genius, or as an example of dedication to the work of building the new world, the topos has long overgrown its initial condition as a simple motif of popular culture.

*Această lucrare a fost sprijinită de Narodowe Centrum Nauki [National Science Centre in Poland] rin proiectul The Topos of an “Immured Woman” in the Cultures of Southeastern Europe and Hungary, no. 2020/37/B/HS2/00152.

The folkloric topos of the walled-up woman, present in several variants in South-Eastern Europe, has a special status in the Romanian culture. The “Legend of Master Manole” from which it originates, along with “Miorița”, has become a canonical literary text. Considered by G. Călinescu as a “cultural myth”, one of the four essential Romanian myths, in the interwar and communist period, it was intensively exploited ideologically and politically. Interpreted by writers, either as a sample of Romanian creative genius, or as an example of dedication to the work of building the new world, the topos has long overgrown its initial condition as a simple motif of popular culture.

*Această lucrare a fost sprijinită de Narodowe Centrum Nauki [National Science Centre in Poland] rin proiectul The Topos of an “Immured Woman” in the Cultures of Southeastern Europe and Hungary, no. 2020/37/B/HS2/00152.