FAIRYTALES, FABLES & FABULATION

FABLES

FABLE - A short story, typically with animals as

characters, conveying a moral; a story, typically a

supernatural one incorporating elements of myth

and legend. Recorded from Middle English, the word

comes via Old French from Latin fabula ‘story’, from

fari ‘speak’.

FABLES

Fables are stories intended to teach a lesson, and

animals often speak and act like human beings.

ELEMENTS TO REMEMBER

ANIMALS are usually the main characters

The plot and characters are SIMPLE

Stories teach a MORAL or LESSON

SETTING is common and nonspecific

Author uses PERSONIFICATION

FAIRY TALES

a tale about fairies, of strange incident,

coincidence and marvelous progress or a story,

usually for children, about elves, hobgoblins,

dragons, fairies or other magical creatures.

fairy tales are the chains of variants of individual

fairy tale motifs and elements.

Stories with fairies or other magical creatures,

usually for children.

A modern fairy tale is written in a traditional style

with the elements of folklore but with a

contemporary twist.

Stories include fantasy, make believe, and often magic.

Stories often begin “Once upon a time . . . ” or “Long, long ago . . . ” .

Characters include royalty or a kingdom setting.

Stories end “ . . . happily ever after.”

Incidents may come in threes.

Characters or events may be found in sevens.

Characters are clearly defined as good and evil.

Good conquers evil.

Magical devices such as wands, swords, or horses assist the resolution of the story.

Picture book “fractured” fairy tales are published in abundance.

FABULATION

FABULATION - A term used by some modern critics for a

mode of modern fiction that openly delights in its self‐

conscious verbal artifice, thus departing from the

conventions of realism.

Robert Scholes in his book The Fabulators (1967) describes

fabulation in the works of John Barth, Kurt Vonnegut, and others

as an essentially comic and allegorical mode of fiction that

often adopts the forms of romance or of the picaresque

novel.