Genres & Forms
Historical Tradition (Perekaz)
A perekaz is an oral folk narrative about historical events, persons, or places that claims to be true and is passed from generation to generation. Unlike a legend, the perekaz lacks pronounced fantasy and tends toward the documentary, though over time it accrues conjecture. There are toponymic traditions (about the origin of place-names), historical ones (about the Khmelnytsky era, the haidamaka movement, the Ruin), and traditions about historical figures (Baida Vyshnevetsky, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Ustym Karmaliuk). The perekaz is an important source of folk historical memory. Substantial collections were compiled by Mykhailo Drahomanov (a collection of folk traditions and tales, 1876) and Volodymyr Hnatiuk. Folk traditions about the Cossacks became the ground for the historical prose of Panteleimon Kulish and Mykhailo Starytsky.
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Meaning, origins and distinction — side by side.
Distinction
Two non-fairytale prose narratives differing in degree of fantasy. The legend contains a pronounced FANTASTIC or religious-miraculous element (a miracle, a saint, the supernatural) and inclines to instruction. The historical tradition (perekaz), by contrast, claims HISTORICAL authenticity: it recounts real events, persons or places (the Khmelnytsky era, Karmaliuk, place-name origins) almost without invention, though over time it accrues conjecture. The legend is closer to the miracle; the tradition, to historical memory.
