Erotic Symbolism of Plant Fruits in South Slavic Oral Lyric Poetry

Folkloristics 7/1 (2022): 33–53
Author: Ana Vukmanović
Text:
https://doi.org/10.18485/folk.2022.7.1.2

This paper focuses on the erotic symbolism of plant fruits in oral lyric poetry. It is shown that the fruits could be signs of wish (giving apples or quinces as a gift), means in the erotic game (aiming an apple, quince, hawthorn, or blackthorn fruits to a maiden or a lad), and metaphors of bodily parts (apple, melon). The dynamism of erotic phenomenon is noticed in the variability of initiatives during the encounters, giving fruit as a gift in the motion of the sexual act. The sexual act itself is modelled by parallelisms between the human body and fruits (melon and vulva, apple/quince and breasts), or coitus that is metaphorically presented as picking (apples, quinces, lemons) or destroying (cutting a melon). The dynamism of erotic relations is also noticed in motives of rejecting a fruit (a wreath of beans), luring with fruit (apple) as a means to fulfil a desire, and to cross established boundaries. As liminal, erotic experience is connected with the wedding as a ritual of passage, since it can announce the wedding. Accordingly, the paper discusses the ways erotic symbolism of plant fruits intersects with their functions as a pre-wedding gift.

Keywords: plant fruits, oral lyric poetry, South Slavic cultural areal, erotic symbolism, human body, the Other.