«Die verfolgte Frau» : per l'analisi semiologica di un motivo folclorico e delle sue derivazioni medievali (con speciale attenzione all'ambito catalano)

Folklore, the projection of a common content, translates into a finite though substantial number of textual structures that preserve the marks of the specific setting in which they originated, as opposed to the potentially unconscious nature of the systems. The compositive schemas, brought to light by the narratological analysis of tales, coincide generally in their motifs and subjects. Although the motif of the persecuted- maiden, like many others, is rooted in the remote past and refers to the various forms of rituality which, originally bearing a sacral meaning, became progressively divested of their religious implications; the sacred object became profane, thus entering folkloric and artistic production. This was the moment in which the motif arose, later multiplying itself in the numerous surviving testimonies. It acquired enormous popularity during the Middle Ages and became a sign of that semiologic universe. Indeed, the enumeration of the attestations in the medieval Latin, Romance, Germanic and Oriental spheres and the comparative analysis of their narratological structure lead to the identification of the shared compositive grammar. The outline sketched in this waybrings to light one and the same structural typification, to which all the tales refer and of which these tales represent the literary projection. The study that has been carried out highlights the intercurrent relations between the Catalan tales and the documented texts: direct derivation, indirect influences, degree of proximity or independence of the different versions, and specific particularities of the attestations of this linguistic-cultural sphere