The research interest of this monograph focuses on demonstrating, on the example
of a mythological representation — a witch, what contents of a stereotype do the
children starting cultural and social education encounter and how they deal with its
complex contents in a cognitive and linguistic aspect. Therefore, an important part
of the monograph is the presentation of the cultural context (beliefs and the language)
which may influence the conceptualization of an image by children. The stereotype
of a witch emerging from the tradition was shown as drawing from a few
prototype patterns (a witch, a harridan, a hag), a conglomerate, unusually rich in
contents, consisting of numerous sub-schemes and a script of features, “nested” and
“integrated” into a whole. Strong, criterial features confirmed by system data (such
as being a woman and sorcery, ugliness, bad temper) and numerous connotative,
text features, which confirm certain beliefs (evaluation, specific behaviours and
places, dissimilarity, loneliness, attributes, means of transport), have been separated
in it.
Against the above background, the diversified profiles of an image of a witch
were presented — the traditional ones from folk and literary tales and the modified
ones — from modern tales and fantasy works. Such stereotype images — cultural and
literary, were compared with the image from children’s utterances formulated in accordance
with the cognitive definition in a facet system.
The results of analysis of the shape of the mythological image, conducted on the
basis of younger and older school children’s utterances, indicate that the stereotype
of a witch in their imaging remained almost unchanged, regardless of small — deliberate
attempt to modify it. The research also confirm that very early, at 7-year-old
children, the stereotype of a witch is well crystallized, although it is more strongly
rooted at 9-10-year-olds than the children aged 7, particularly boys. With older
school children the mythological image slightly fades — the oldest pupils (particularly
girls) tended to evaluate witches positively. The children’s image of a witch shows the durability of the cultural stereotype.
It is not significantly different from the one that is fixed in the language and culture.
The only differences are: a more sensual manner of conceptualization, specific (children’s)
point of view in evaluating the witch’s bad deeds and particular drawing on
the components of the fixed in literature prototype of a hag when children create
a profile of “a genuine witch”
