BELICA ORAL LEGENDS – FROM TERRAIN TO TEXT

This paper deals with the process in which a collection of oral legends found on the terrain of the Belica locality was created. Its objective is to get an insight into the terrain which would include a geographical and cultural aspect as well as up-to-date records of the transmissions. This position creates an explanatory starting point for the need to repeat and expand the research in a way in which different theoretical and methodological assumptions can be appreciated. The presentation of the collection relates to the pre-terrain, terrain and post-terrain stages, and it focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of the research procedures that have been applied so far. The material collected will be classified and described in line with the classifications adopted in folkloristics. Moreover, an attempt will be made to point out the possibilities for some future research, not only of this terrain, but also of legends in general. The fluidity of the borders of genres and the difficulties arising from the attempts at definition and classification are the issues that even impose a need for a contemporary researcher to look for different new approaches. This paper indicates the selected aspects of study that open up in a dialogue with the existing paradigms in contemporary humanistic sciences. Accordingly, the research tends to observe the oral legends originating in the Belica terrain through the lens of the theories of narratology and imagology with the aim to reveal the material in a different spectrum of concepts that could affirm the existing scientific assumptions or possibly point to the new approaches in understanding this folklore genre.Publishe