Fairy Tales depend on some core characteristics. These can change depending on the time period, writer, and cultural traditions. In general, fairy tales usually invoke a number of these characteristics:
Sense of Wonder
Often the tales deal with hunger, abandonment, physical needs like shelter/food/clothes
Child hero/heroine
Often vulnerable children or young woman
Family dysfunction (especially between children and steparent)
Often represents the maturation process or growing up cycle
Problems of sexuality and/or marital life, especially for women
violence
hunger/sex links (sometimes, not always)
supernatural elements
perspective of innocence and world of experience often collapsed
sometimes a world lacking divine guidance or morality or the story defies the pat "happily ever after"
psychological projections of desire or fear
parental or sibling struggles
World of evil and good often clearly defined, but not always clearly resolved
"FAIRY TALES"
by Mary Magoulick
Fairy tales, also known as wonder tales or märchen (from the German), are a sub-genre of folktales involving magical, fantastic or wonderful episodes, characters, events, or symbols. Like all folktales they are narratives that are not believed to be true (fictional stories), often in timeless settings (once upon a time) in generic, unspecified places (the woods), with one-dimensional characters (completely good or bad). They function to entertain, inspire, and enlighten us. In these episodic narratives the main characters are usually humans who often follow a typical pattern (as in a heroic quest) that is resolved partly by magic. The fact that these wonder tales still appeal to us attests to their richness and effectiveness as symbolic (artistic) communication.
Folktales are often discussed as one of the three principle genres of folk narrative (first categorized by the Grimm brothers in the 19th century). The other two principle genres are myths and legends.
(The following information comes from Jack Zipes “Cross-Cultural Connections and the Contamination of the Classical Fairy Tale” in The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm, ed. Jack Zipes, New York: WW Norton & Co., 2001, pp. 845-868)
"Writers and storytellers during the Renaissance began setting a trend by distinguishing a certain type of telling and writing from the main body of storytelling. This type, which can be broadly defined as the oral wonder tale, eventually succeeded to specify and define itself as a separate species and became a literary genre in the late-seventeenth-century France" (p. xii).
All STORIES reflect culture (and shape culture)
Fairy Tales reflect universal themes, metaphors, but also a very alien world
Themes: often socio-economic classes seeking power, but also delights of existence & intricacies of the civilizing process
Fairy Tale Scholarship much of 19th & 20th cent. = CLASSIFICATION (comparison, collection)
Our collections filtered through highly educated upper class (still true today of our stories)
ORAL TRADITION – no way to trace origins, tellers, details
WRITTEN LITERATURE – transcribing always changes nature of tale (records ONE version), extracts from context, imbues with writer’s purpose
Fairy Tales first recorded 12th – 15th cent. (middle ages): shaped in Christian era of patriarchy & wealthy elite (motifs similar in some pre-Christian epics, poems, myths, fables, etc.)
Paradigmatic Functions (structure) facilitates recall (helps store, remember, reproduce plot & change it to fit experiences); easily identifiable characters associated with particular social classes, desires, professions, assignments Easy to vary characters, settings, motifs, according to specific functions
To induce WONDER & HOPE for change (distinct from legend, fable, etc)
WONDER à astonishment (oft regarded as supernatural omen or portent)
à admiration, fear, awe, reverence
= universe in which anything can happen any time (fortune misfortune both inexplicable)
Characters demand no explanation (opportunistic, hopeful)
Must seize opportunity to benefit in relationships with others
FUNCTION of Fairy Tales: “awaken our regard for the miraculous condition of life & to evoke profound feelings of awe and respect for life as a miraculous process, which can be altered and changed to compensate for the lack of power, wealth, and pleasure that most people experience” (pp. 848-9, Zipes)
Russian formalist Vladimir PROPP compares many tales to reveal
COMMON STRUCTURE (31 “functions”) = Propp’s Paradigm:
Protagonist confronted with interdiction/prohibition she violates
à departure or banishment
à protagonist takes or is given task related to interdiction/prohibition
TASK is a sign mark or stereotype of character (names are rare, insig)
Characters function according to social class/profession & transform selves or cross boundaries
Significant or signifying encounter
Protagonist will meet enemies or friends
Antagonist is often a witch, ogre, monster, or evil fairy
“Friend” is usually a mysterious creature or character who gives the protagonist gifts (often x 3; often magical agents)
à Miraculous or marvelous change / transformation
Protagonist is endowed with gifts
Protagonist is tested & overcomes inimical forces
Usually peripeteia (sudden fall) in fortunes = temporary set back
Miraculous / marvelous intervention needed to reverse wheel of fortune
Often protagonist here uses endowed gifts (including magical agens & cunning) à goal
Success usually = marriage, acquisition of money, survival, wisdom or combination of first 3
As a whole these functions form TRANSFORMATION (overall focus of the tale)
HERO: usually humble, simple, naïve, untainted (can recog wonder signs)
Believes in the miraculous & reveres nature
Wants to keep process of natural change flowing à happiness
VILLAIN: uses words & power to exploit, control, transfix, incarcerate, and destroy, intentionally for personal benefit
No respect or consideration for nature & other humans
Seeks to abuse magic (for personal gain)
ORAL TALES: may stabilize or conserve or challenge common beliefs, laws, values, norms
Narrator evokes MOOD & MESSAGE (may be conservative, radical, sexist, progressive, etc.)
Regardless of purpose, wonder tale is:
“a celebration of miraculous or fabulous transformation in the name of hope that accounts for its major appeal” (849, Zipes)
Fairy Tale: metaphor to mark the persistent human quest for utopia (existence without restraint)
FOLK (like children) sometimes considered quaint, superstitious, foolish
Tales thus cast as unbelievable
Untruth associated with women (gossips, old goose, etc.)
BUT people weren’t stupid or diff. – metaphor fundamental to humanity
Fairy Tales symbolize material conditions, wishes, relations in society
Magic / marvelous believed in by all classes (church tried to suppress)
All traditions / cultures have magic, fantastic tales
Religions often circulate own tales that compete with secular versions
Authorities feminized the tradition to dismiss it
Hence collection named: Mother Goose, Bedtime stories, Nursery stories, etc.
Such titles are NOT a true reflection of audience, tellers
TALE TELLING crosses all boundaries (fundamentally human); people are eager for any store / tale (new or ritual); everyone exposed to some kind of storytelling (still true today)
LITERARY TRADITION:
Men firmly in control (see list pp. 851-2, Zipes)
Can trace: motifs, characters, topoi, magical properties to Orient & Occident (religious & secular examples from India, Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc.)
Stories first gathered, institutionalized, recorded in late Middle Ages
14th c. Florence flourishing center of literary activity
STRAPAROLA (little known, clearly well-educated); name = “loquacious”
1st edition 1550/53 The Pleasant Nights (widespread, influential)
Set frame of characters, topoi, motifs, metaphors, plots (convention)
Tales: mastery of lang, critical view of politics, erotic/obscene riddles
Message often ironic / pessimistic (focus on power / fortune)
Hero: needs luck (magic) & knowledge of how to use it to succeed
Most protagonists are MALE, act to exploit opportunities for wealth, power, adventure
BASILE from middle class Naples, educated, traveled, administrator, writer
1575, 55 tales published (widely circulated, read, translated)
Tales: hilarious, ironical, original, brilliant, witty, truly “fairy tales”, full of conflict and mirth.
Sympathetic to the folk:
minimalizes differences between peasant & aristocrat
FRENCH SALONS – space for women intellectuals in 18th c France
Recounting tales grew out of literary entertainment / parlor games; chose genre partly b/c considered frivolous, only way for soc women to write
Mme d’Aulnoy – 17 tales, long, intricate discourses on love & tenderness
Critiques conventional court manners w/ dialogues & narrative frames
Coined term – conte de fée (=fairy tale)
1720 – French Tales:
During period of discontent, reacted w/ sensitivity
Ingenious combination of salon culture & folk idiom (& role of precocious women)
Marvelous realms governed by fairies (more feminine reign) vs. corrupt men of reality in power
Vast cross-cultural connections (pan-European tradition)
Throughout Europe – Rise of fabulous tales in earnest (interest in the exotic)
1704-17 – 1001 Nights (very popular oriental tales); filled with escapist fantasies à stimulated European storytellers
Editions flourish à editing, abridging (influence commoners & aristocrats)
Parodies also abound (macabre, grotesque, burlesque, porn)
GERMANS – educated in French, influenced above all by French collections
Late 18th c.–1st German edition shows triumph of rationalism over mysticism
GRIMM Brothers (Jacob and Wilhelm)
Many informants from educated upper and middle classes (many Fr. origin)
Transformed tales into exquisite literary creations
Between 1812 – 1857 12 editions published, continually revised, edited, added to, to a total of 210 tales stylized carefully by Wilhelm to reflect “genuine” “folk” tone (ironic b/c they were heavily edited) + customs/beliefs
(plus they knew of pan-European nature of tales & origins in Orient)
HOPE to build a sense of German identity / community–utopian nationalism
Became most popular and famous collection worldwide (probably because of cross-cultural connections); intertwines, interlaces diverse cultural experiences suited to middle class taste, values, in Europe & N. Amer.
Still influential reference points for much of our culture.
Tales heavily psychoanalyzed, interpreted, debated
As morally deficient, sexist, nationalistic, hegemonic, violent, etc.
FOLKLORE: Folklore reveals and helps us understand our humanity. Communities throughout time and space have created stories, songs, dance, music, rituals, customs, festivals, and various material artistic genres (a small sampling of what folklorists study) to make sense of and to celebrate the world and the human condition. Our expressions flourish when tradition connects communal wisdom with innovative inspiration. As its name indicates, folklore involves both "folk" (a group of people) and "lore" (creative expressions). Hence folklorists study "artistic communication in small groups" (Ben-Amos 1972) or "creativity in its own context" (Glassie 1999) - see folklore definitions link below. As an academic discipline folklore shares concerns, methods, and insights with literature, anthropology, art, music, history, linguistics, philosophy, and mythology. The unique contribution of folklore is to strive to focus on systems of interrelationships between people and their artistic productions -- we consider both the folk and the lore and how they influence each other. Most contemporary folklore study involves fieldwork, often in local communities.
WORKS CITED:
http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~mmagouli/folklore.htm
http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~mmagouli/fairy_tales.htm