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A. S. Byatt
Dame Antonia Susan Duffy, DBE (commonly known as A. S. Byatt born 24 August 1936, Sheffield) is an English novelist, poet and Booker Prize winner. In 2008, The Times newspaper named her among their list of The 50 greatest British writers since 1945.
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Aesop
Aesop or Esop ( or ;Commonly mispronounced . , Aisōpos; c. 620–564 BC), known for the genre of fables ascribed to him (see Aesop's Fables), was by tradition born a slave (δοῦλος) and was a contemporary of Croesus and Solon in the mid-sixth century BC in ancient Greece.
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Alan Garner
Alan Garner OBE (born in Congleton, Cheshire, 17 October 1934) is an English writer whose work is firmly rooted in Cheshire.
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Alexander Afanasyev
Alexander Nikolayevich Afanasyev () (11 July, 1826 – 23 October, 1871) was a Russian folklorist who recorded and published over 600 Russian folktales and fairytales, by far the largest folktale collection by any one man in the world. His first collection was published in eight volumes from 1855-67, earning him the reputation of a Russian counterpart to the Brothers Grimm.
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Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scots poet, novelist, and literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named for him.
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Angela Carter
Angela Carter (May 7, 1940 – February 16, 1992) was an English novelist and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, picaresque and science fiction works. In 2008, The Times ranked Carter tenth, in their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
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Antti Aarne
Antti Amatus Aarne (December 5, 1867 – February 2, 1925) was a Finnish folklorist.
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Bengt Holbek
Bengt Holbek (April 1, 1933 – August 27, 1992) was a Danish folklorist who wrote one of the definitive works of fairy tale scholarship entitled Interpretation of Fairy Tales (1987).
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Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm ( or '), Jacob (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863) and Wilhelm Grimm''' (24 February 1786 – 16 December 1859), were German academics best known for publishing collections of folk tales and fairy tales, which became popular. Jacob also did academic work in linguistics, related to how the sounds in words shift over time (Grimm's law), and together they wrote a German dictionary.
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Bruce Holland Rogers
Bruce Holland Rogers is an American author of short fiction who also writes under the pseudonym Hanovi Braddock. His stories have won a Pushcart Prize, two Nebula Awards, the Bram Stoker Award, two World Fantasy Awards, the Micro Award, and have been nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award and Spain's Premio Ignotus.
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Buddhism
Buddhism (Pali/Sanskrit: बौद्ध धर्म Buddha Dharma) is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha (Pāli/Sanskrit "the awakened one"). The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. He is recognized by adherents as an awakened teacher who shared his insights to help sentient beings end suffering (or dukkha), achieve nirvana, and escape what is seen as a cycle of suffering and rebirth.
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Cameron Dokey
Cameron Dokey (born 1956) is an American author. She lives in Seattle, Washington with her four cats and her husband. She has a collection of over 50 old sci-fi and horror films.
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Carlo Gozzi
Carlo, Count Gozzi (13 December 1720 – April 4, 1806) was an Italian dramatist, known for his play The Green Bird.
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Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was the most popular British novelist of the Victorian era, and he remains popular, responsible for some of English literature's most iconic characters.
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Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault (12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703) was a French author who laid foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, and whose best known tales, derived from pre-existing folk tales, include Le Petit Chaperon rouge (Little Red Riding Hood), La Belle au bois dormant (Sleeping Beauty), Le Maître chat ou le Chat botté (Puss in Boots), Cendrillon ou la petite pantoufle de verre (Cinderella), La Barbe bleue (Bluebeard), Le Petit Poucet (''Hop o' My Thumb), Les Fées (Diamonds and Toads), La Marquise de Salusses ou la Patience de Griselidis (Patient Griselda), Les Souhaits ridicules (The Ridiculous Wishes), Peau d'Âne (Donkeyskin) and Riquet à la houppe (Ricky of the Tuft''). Perrault's most famous stories are still in print today and have been made into operas, ballets (e.g., Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty), plays, musicals, and films, both live-action and animation.
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Donald Barthelme
Donald Barthelme (April 7, 1931 – July 23, 1989) was an American author known for his playful, postmodernist style of short fiction.
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Donna Jo Napoli
Donna Jo Napoli (born February 28, 1948) is an author of children's and young adult books, as well as a prominent linguist who has worked in syntax, phonetics, phonology, morphology, historical and comparative linguistics, Romance studies, structure of Japanese, structure of American Sign Language, poetics, writing for ESL students, and mathematical and linguistic analysis of folk dance.
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E. E. Cummings
Edward Estlin Cummings (October 14, 1894 – September 3, 1962), popularly known as E. E. Cummings, with the abbreviated form of his name often written by others in lowercase letters as ee cummings (in the style of some of his poems), was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright. His body of work encompasses approximately 2,900 poems, two autobiographical novels, four plays and several essays, as well as numerous drawings and paintings. He is remembered as a preeminent voice of 20th century poetry, as well as one of the most popular.
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Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser (c. 1552 – 13 January 1599) was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English language.
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Espido Freire
María Laura Espido Freire (her pen name is just her surnames Espido Freire) is a writer born in Bilbao, Spain on July 16, 1974.
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Gail Carson Levine
Gail Carson Levine (born September 17, 1947 in New York, New York) is an American author of young adult books. Her first novel, Ella Enchanted, received a Newbery Honor in 1998.
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Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; c. 1343 – 25 October 1400) was an English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Although he wrote many works, he is best remembered for his unfinished frame narrative The Canterbury Tales. Sometimes called the father of English literature, Chaucer is credited by some scholars as the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular Middle English, rather than French or Latin.
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George Cruikshank
George Cruikshank (27 September 1792 – 1 February 1878) was a British caricaturist and book illustrator, praised as the "modern Hogarth" during his life. His book illustrations for his friend Charles Dickens, and many other authors, reached an international audience.
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George MacDonald
George MacDonald (10 December 1824 – 18 September 1905) was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister.
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George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was a British author and journalist. His work is marked by keen intelligence and wit, a profound awareness of social injustice, an intense, revolutionary opposition to totalitarianism, a passion for clarity in language and a belief in democratic socialism.
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Giambattista Basile
Giambattista Basile (c. 1575 – February 23, 1632) was an Italian poet, courtier, and fairy tale collector.
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Hansel and Gretel
Hansel and Gretel () is a fairy tale of German origin, recorded by the Brothers Grimm. The story follows a young brother and sister who discover a house of candy and cake in the forest and a cannibalistic witch. The tale has been adapted to various media, most notably the opera Hänsel und Gretel (1893) by Engelbert Humperdinck and a stop-motion animated feature film based on the opera.
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Iona and Peter Opie
Iona Archibald Opie (born Iona Archibald, 1923 - ) and Peter Mason Opie (1918 – 1982) were a husband-and-wife team of folklorists, who applied modern techniques to children's literature, summarized in their studies, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1951) and The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (1959). They are also noted anthologists, and assembled large collections of children's literature, toys and games.
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Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino (15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) () was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy (1952–1959), the Cosmicomics collection of short stories (1965), and the novels Invisible Cities (1972) and ''If on a winter's night a traveler'' (1979).
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J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE (3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973), who pronounced his surname was a South African-born English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.
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Jack Zipes
Jack David Zipes is an American retired Professor of German at the University of Minnesota, who has published and lectured on the subject of fairy tales, their linguistic roots, and argued that they have a "socialization function". According to Zipes, fairy tales "serve a meaningful social function, not just for compensation but for revelation: the worlds projected by the best of our fairy tales reveal the gaps between truth and falsehood in our immediate society." His arguments are avowedly based on the neo-Marxist critical theory of the Frankfurt School.
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James Thurber
James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American author, cartoonist and celebrated wit. Thurber was best known for his contributions (both cartoons and short stories) to The New Yorker magazine.
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Jane Yolen
Jane Hyatt Yolen (born February 11, 1939) is an American author and editor of almost 300 books. These include folklore, fantasy, science fiction, and children's books. She wrote the Nebula Award-winning ''Sister Emily's Lightship (short story) and Lost Girls (novelette), as well as Owl Moon and The Emperor and the Kite, Caldecott Medal winners, the Commander Toad series and How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight''.
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Jasper Fforde
Jasper Fforde (born 11 January 1961) is a British novelist. Fforde's first novel, The Eyre Affair, was published in 2001. Fforde is mainly known for his Thursday Next novels, although he has written another series, the Nursery Crime Stories series. He is starting another series of books entitled Shades of Grey.
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Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager, playwright, artist and filmmaker. Along with other avant-garde artists of his generation (Jean Anouilh and René Char for example) Cocteau grappled with the algebra of verbal codes old and new, mise en scène language and technologies of modernism to create a paradox: a classical avant-garde. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María Félix, Édith Piaf (whom he cast in one of his one-act plays entitled Le Bel Indifferent in 1940), and Raymond Radiguet.
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Jeremiah Curtin
Jeremiah Curtin (September 6, 1835 – December 14, 1906, Vermont) was an American translator and folklorist.
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John Clute
John Frederick Clute (born 1940) is a Canadian born author and critic who has lived in Britain since 1969. He has been described as "an integral part of science fiction's history."
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Jon Scieszka
Jon Scieszka (SHEH-ska: which means "path'" in Polish) was born September 8, 1954 in Flint, Michigan is an American author of children's literature, best known for his collaborations with illustrator Lane Smith. He is also a nationally recognized reading advocate, and in early 2008 was named the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature by the Librarian of Congress. His Time Warp Trio series, which teaches kids history, has been adapted into a television show.
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Joseph Jacobs
Joseph Jacobs (29 August 1854 - 30 January 1916) was folklorist, literary critic and historian. His works included contributions to the Jewish Encyclopaedia, translations of European works, and critical editions of early English literature. Jacobs wrote for journals and books on the subject of folklore and produced a popular series of fairy tales.
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Joseph Ritson
Joseph Ritson (2 October 1752 – 23 September 1803) was an English antiquary.
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Jørgen Moe
Jørgen Engebretsen Moe ( 22 April 1813 - 27 March 1882) was a Norwegian bishop and author. He is best known for the Norske Folkeeventyr, a collection of Norwegian folk tales which he edited in collaboration with Peter Christen Asbjørnsen.
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Kate Bernheimer
Kate Bernheimer is an American fairy-tale writer, scholar and editor.
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Katie Farris
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Kelly Link
Kelly Link (born 1969; Miami, Florida) is an American editor and author of short stories. While some of her fiction falls more clearly within genre categories, many of her stories might be described as slipstream or magic realism: a combination of science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, and realism. Among other honors, she has won a Hugo award, three Nebula awards, and a World Fantasy Award for her fiction.
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Kunio Yanagita
was a Japanese scholar who is often known as the father of Japanese native folkloristics, or minzokugaku.
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L. Frank Baum
Lyman Frank Baum (May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He wrote thirteen novel sequels, nine other fantasy novels, and a host of other works (55 novels in total (plus four "lost" novels), 82 short stories, over 200 poems, an unknown number of scripts, and many miscellaneous writings), and made numerous attempts to bring his works to the stage and screen. His works predicted such century-later commonplaces as television, laptop computers (The Master Key), wireless telephones (Tik-Tok of Oz), and the ubiquity of advertising on clothing (''Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work'').
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La Fontaine
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Luchino Visconti
Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo (2 November 1906 - 17 March 1976) was an Italian theatre, opera and cinema director, as well as a screenwriter. He is best known for his films The Leopard (1963) and Death in Venice (1971). There is a museum dedicated to the director's work in Ischia.
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Madame d'Aulnoy
'''Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d'Aulnoy (1650/1651–4 January 1705), also known as Countess d'Aulnoy', was a French writer known for her fairy tales. When she termed her works contes de fées'' (fairy tales), she originated the term that is now generally used for the genre.
http://wn.com/Madame_d'Aulnoy -
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood, CC, O.Ont, FRSC (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist.
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Marina Warner
Marina Sarah Warner, CBE, FBA (born 9 November 1946 in London, England) is a British novelist, short story writer, historian and mythographer. She is known for her many non-fiction books relating to feminism and myth.
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Michel Ocelot
Michel Ocelot is a French writer, character designer, storyboard artist and director of animated films and television programs (formerly also animator, background artist, narrator and other roles in earlier works) and a former president of the International Animated Film Association. Though best known for his 1998 début feature Kirikou and the Sorceress, his earlier films and television work had already won Césars and British Academy Film Awards among others and he was made a chevalier of the Légion d'honneur on 23 October 2009, presented to him by Agnès Varda whom had been promoted to commandeur earlier the same year.
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Oscar Wilde
'''Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde''' (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish writer, poet, and prominent aesthete; who, after writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Today he is remembered for his epigrams, plays and the tragedy of his imprisonment and early death.
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Petre Ispirescu
Petre Ispirescu (January 1830–21 November 1887) was a Romanian printer and publicist.
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Rapunzel
"Rapunzel" is a German fairy tale in the collection assembled by the Brothers Grimm, and first published in 1812 as part of ''Children's and Household Tales''. The Grimm Brothers' story is an adaptation of the fairy tale Persinette by Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force originally published in 1698. Its plot has been used and parodied in various media and its best known line ("Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair") is an idiom of popular culture.
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Robert Bly
Robert Bly (born December 23, 1926) is an American poet, author, activist and leader of the Mythopoetic Men's Movement.
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Robert Coover
Robert Lowell Coover (born February 4, 1932) is an American author and professor in the Literary Arts program at Brown University. He is generally considered a writer of fabulation and metafiction.
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Robert Munsch
Robert Norman Munsch, CM (born June 11, 1945) is an American-born Canadian children's author.
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Robin McKinley
Robin McKinley (born November 16, 1952 as Jennifer Carolyn Robin McKinley) is a fantasy author. She was awarded the 1985 Newbery Medal for The Hero and the Crown, the 1983 Newbery Honor for The Blue Sword , the 2004 Mythopoeic Award for Adult Literature for Sunshine, the 1986 World Fantasy Award for Imaginary Lands, and the 1998 Phoenix Award honor for . She has also written ''Spindle's End, The Outlaws of Sherwood, Rose Daughter, , Deerskin, Sunshine, , Dragonhaven, Chalice and most recently, ''.
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Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (25 or 27 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian philosopher, social thinker, architect and esotericist. He gained initial recognition as a literary critic and cultural philosopher. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he founded a new spiritual movement, Anthroposophy, as an esoteric philosophy growing out of European transcendentalism and with links to Theosophy.
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Ruth Manning-Sanders
Ruth Manning-Sanders (21 August 1886 – 12 October 1988) was a Welsh poet and author who was perhaps best known for her series of children's books in which she collected and retold fairy tales from all over the world. The dust jacket for A Book of Giants aptly describes her writing style: "Mrs. Manning-Sanders tells the stories with wit and good humor. There is not a word wasted."
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Saga
The sagas (from Icelandic saga, plural sögur), are stories about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, about early Viking voyages, about migration to Iceland, and of feuds between Icelandic families. They were written in the Old Norse language, mainly in Iceland.
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Scottish people
The Scottish people (Scots Gaelic: Albannaich), or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Celtic Picts (east) and the Gaels (west), incorporating neighbouring Britons as well as Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.
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tall tale
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Tanith Lee
Tanith Lee (born ) is a British writer of science fiction, horror and fantasy.
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Vladimir Propp
Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp (; — 22 August 1970) was a Russian and Soviet formalist scholar who analyzed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements.
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Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist. Disney is famous for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. As the co-founder (with his brother Roy O. Disney) of Walt Disney Productions, Disney became one of the best-known motion picture producers in the world. The corporation he co-founded, now known as The Walt Disney Company, today has annual revenues of approximately U.S. $35 billion.
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Warwick Goble
Warwick Goble (22 November 1862 – 22 January 1943) was an illustrator of children's books. He specialized in Japanese and Indian themes.
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William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
http://wn.com/William_Shakespeare
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Americas
The Americas, or America, (, , , , , , ) are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World, comprising the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. The plural form the Americas is often used in English, as the singular America is ambiguous: America is more commonly used to refer to the United States of America. The Americas cover 8.3% of the Earth's total surface area (28.4% of its land area) and contain about 13.5% of the human population (about 900 million people).
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Australia
{{Infobox country
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England
England () is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental Europe. Most of England comprises the central and southern part of the island of Great Britain in the North Atlantic. The country also includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.
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Ireland
Ireland (,; , ; Ulster Scots: Airlann) is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the northwest of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland is Great Britain, separated from it by the Irish Sea. The island is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers just under five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom, which covers the remainder and is located in the northeast of the island. The population of Ireland is approximately 6.2 million people. Just under 4.5 million live in the Republic of Ireland and just under 1.8 million live in Northern Ireland.
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Italy
Italy (; ), officially the Italian Republic (), is a country located in south-central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia along the Alps. To the south it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia — the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea — and many other smaller islands. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, whilst Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers some and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 60.4 million inhabitants, it is the sixth most populous country in Europe, and the twenty-third most populous in the world.
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Naples
Naples ( , , Neapolitan: Napule) is a city in Italy; it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples. Known for its rich history, art, culture, architecture, music, and gastronomy, Naples has played an important role in the the Italian peninsula and beyond for much of its existence, which began more than 2,800 years ago. Situated on the west coast of Italy by the Gulf of Naples, the city is located halfway between two volcanic areas, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields.
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Norway
Norway (; Norwegian: (Bokmål) or (Nynorsk)), officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.8 million. It is one of the most sparsely populated countries in Europe. The majority of the country shares a border to the east with Sweden; its northernmost region is bordered by Finland to the south and Russia to the east; and Denmark lies south of its southern tip across the Skagerrak Strait. The capital city of Norway is Oslo. Norway's extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea, is home to its famous fjords.
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Russia
Russia (; ), also officially known as the Russian Federation (), is a state in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both via Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, the People's Republic of China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also has maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk and the United States by the Bering Strait. At , Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than a ninth of the Earth's land area. Russia is also the ninth most populous nation with 142 million people. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning 9 time zones and incorporating a wide range of environments and landforms. Russia has the world's largest reserves of mineral and energy resources. It has the world's largest forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world's fresh water.
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United States
The United States of America (also referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, or America) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Caribbean and Pacific.
http://wn.com/United_States
- Aesop
- Africa
- Alan Garner
- Alexander Afanasyev
- Allerleirauh
- Americas
- ancient Egypt
- ancient Greece
- Ancient Rome
- Andrew Lang
- Angela Carter
- Animal Farm
- animation
- anime
- Annette Marie Hyder
- Antti Aarne
- Aschenputtel
- Australia
- Baital Pachisi
- beast fable
- Beauty and the Beast
- Bel and the Dragon
- Bengt Holbek
- Bluebeard
- Brother and Sister
- Brothers Grimm
- Bruce Holland Rogers
- Bruno Bettelheim
- Brynhildr
- Buddhism
- Cameron Dokey
- cannibalism
- Cap O' Rushes
- Carlo Gozzi
- cat
- Catskin
- Charles Dickens
- Charles Perrault
- Chinese folklore
- Cinderella
- Commedia dell'Arte
- Cupid and Psyche
- damsel in distress
- Deerskin
- demon
- Disney
- Donald Barthelme
- Donkeyskin
- Donna Jo Napoli
- donor (fairy tale)
- dragon
- Duan Chengshi
- dwarf (mythology)
- E. E. Cummings
- Early Modern France
- Edmund Spenser
- Elf
- England
- Epic poems
- Espido Freire
- Eurocentrism
- fable
- Fables (Vertigo)
- Fairy
- fairy godmother
- fairytale fantasy
- false hero
- fantastic
- fantasy
- feminism
- film
- Finette Cendron
- Fitcher's Bird
- folklore
- Folklore of India
- folkloristics
- folktales
- footbinding
- fox
- French folklore
- Gail Carson Levine
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Florian Fai
Album releases
Water Fai
Releases by year: 2008
Album releases
Girls in the White Dream (Released 2008)
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Tsubasa - Kuro and Fai - Episode 16
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:07
- Published: 02 Nov 2007
- Uploaded: 30 Nov 2011
- Author: GoldenGal42
Watch Fai's sword! Explanation: Filler world. There's a tournament and they think the prize is a feather. And I had to put the Kurogane and Fai (Fye) fights up. Angst is included. Hyuu~! Just for Fingolfia! The song at 1:09 is called Strange Names and is Fai's theme song/tune. --- I own nothing!
http://wn.com/Tsubasa__Kuro_and_Fai__Episode_16
Fai AMV
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:35
- Published: 09 Feb 2007
- Uploaded: 12 Nov 2011
- Author: Firestar7218
Another AMV, this time with Fai =] Song: Death Said Artist: The Summer Obsession Anime: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle
http://wn.com/Fai_AMV
Official - Kim Fai 'Zen' (Original Club Mix)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:33
- Published: 11 Apr 2011
- Uploaded: 24 Nov 2011
- Author: toolroomrecords
***OUT NOW*** Beatport: beatport.com Fresh from a year that saw Kim Fai take the house music world by storm with his big productions gaining universal support from Steve Angello and Pete Tong, he returns to Toolroom with a double whammy in the shape of 'Zen / Nano'. Sounding like something that could have come straight from the Swedish House Mafia's studio, 'Zen' has all the hallmarks of a big summer anthem with big chords and an even bigger breakdown that will have the crowd reaching for the sky. 'Nano' continues the progressive vibe, combining punchy beats with a plethora of intensive melodies and a breakdown that is so huge you will be begging for it to drop... Expect to hear this EP rocking the biggest clubs for a long time to come!
http://wn.com/Official__Kim_Fai_'Zen'_Original_Club_Mix
"Smile" - Fai D. Flourite's Image Song
What the title says. =D English Lyrics to Song (Thanks to satscout): Left behind in a distant land are many goodbyes Inside my dream - hey, hold me, I'm broken All these protected things, I want to carefully show you Carried on the wind is only a song.. Yes, that's all. This road is cruel, But when you smile... Because of your kindness, when I try to think Of the painful times, from inside my heart Come countless smiles. Inside my chest was sprouting so much brilliance From this shallow dream, wake me up already, it's dying. My voice can't tell you But, when you sing... From this sorrow, I summon strength And walk forward, to a place I've never seen Towards the light. Because of your kindness, when I try to think Of the painful times, from inside my heart Come countless smiles.
http://wn.com/Smile__Fai_D_Flourite's_Image_Song
FAI - A História De Um Fim (Clipe Oficial)
Banda: FAI Música: A História De Um Fim Álbum: Não Somos Mais Os Mesmos (EP) Ano: 2011 Produção e Direção: Mosh Pit Films: Luis Gustavo Amaro Fellipe Alves da Silva
http://wn.com/FAI__A_História_De_Um_Fim_Clipe_Oficial
Che fai? / Nulla - Amami, Alfredo
A clip of my favorite opera: Verdi's La Traviata. In this part, Alfredo discovers Violetta writting her farewell letter. I specially love this version played by Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón, ¡mi paisano! Please comment!
http://wn.com/Che_fai?_/_Nulla__Amami,_Alfredo
Fai's Milkshake
An AMV I made. :D It feature's Fai from Tsubasa and is placed to the song "Milkshake" By Goodnight Nurse.
http://wn.com/Fai's_Milkshake
Prominent people attend Fai's Kashmir conferences
Kuldeep Nayar, Harinder Baweja, Ved Bhasin, Kamal Mitra Chenoy and Dileep Padgaonkar are some of the prominent personalities who have attended Kashmiri separatist Ghulam Nabi Fai's Kashmir conferences.
http://wn.com/Prominent_people_attend_Fai's_Kashmir_conferences
FAI Volatility Is Here To Stay Part 2.wmv
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:44
- Published: 29 Nov 2011
- Uploaded: 29 Nov 2011
- Author: FinancialAdvantage
J. Michael Martin, President and Chief Investment Officer of Financial Advantage discusses what he expects the market to look like in the next 10 years.
http://wn.com/FAI_Volatility_Is_Here_To_Stay_Part_2wmv
Wayne Mann FAI F3C Schedule A High Manuevers
Wayne Mann FAI F3C Schedule A High Manuevers
http://wn.com/Wayne_Mann_FAI_F3C_Schedule_A_High_Manuevers
![CLASH - Fai Ruk[MV]](http://web.archive.org./web/20111201172306im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/JUfvs2bXE3k/0.jpg "CLASH - Fai Ruk[MV]")
![Clash - Fai ruk [ไฟรัก]ั](http://web.archive.org./web/20111201172306im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/GEhbGeCXQ64/0.jpg "Clash - Fai ruk [ไฟรัก]ั")
Clash - Fai ruk [ไฟรัก]ั
Live in concert rock band from Thailand, Clash, singing Fai ruk!!!!
http://wn.com/Clash__Fai_ruk_ ไฟรัก ั
Fai Am Fine: Lady First - เหตุผลที่ทนเหงา
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:42
- Published: 15 Feb 2009
- Uploaded: 30 Nov 2011
- Author: Udonthani3750
Het pon tee ton ngao (Loneliness is the reason I tolerate this) In this very emotional song, Fai points out that she would not put up with the bad behaviour of her man but for the fact that she is so very lonely.
http://wn.com/Fai_Am_Fine_Lady_First__เหตุผลที่ทนเหงา
Viva La FAI
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:31
- Published: 13 Apr 2009
- Uploaded: 25 Nov 2011
- Author: raslikmuzik
Cancion del bando Anarco-sindicalistas y anti-fascista durante la guerra civil Española. Viva la FAI y la CNT luchemos hermanos contra los tiranos y los requetés Rojo pendón, negro color, luchemos hermanos aunque en la batalla debamos morir. En los tiempos de Rivera y Torquemada, los fascistas nos querían matar, aliados con naciones extranjeras como Italia, Alemania y Portugal. Empezaremos con el trono y acabaremos con el clero que es el animal mas fiero al servicio del poder. FAI. FAI. Viva la FAI y la CNT luchemos hermanos contra los tiranos y los requetés. Si los curas y frailes supieran la paliza que van a llevar subirian al coro gritando libertad,libertad,libertad.
http://wn.com/Viva_La_FAI
DMP - Lea Fai (Solomon Islands 2011)
Solomon Island music. enjoy and share the solo vibes. If you want to download this song and more songs. Go here www.solovibes.tk Please Comment or Like for Feedback. Thank you
http://wn.com/DMP__Lea_Fai_Solomon_Islands_2011
mauro nardi E te fai sempe cchiù bella
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:35
- Published: 12 Nov 2009
- Uploaded: 28 Nov 2011
- Author: francesco173
franco alfano
http://wn.com/mauro_nardi_E_te_fai_sempe_cchiù_bella
Magazine For Fai - Correo Sentimental
Segmento de la Dra Erricabarren (Maida Andrenacci) del programa Magazine For Fai. Emitido por Cablín entre 1994 y 1997 y TyCSports en 1998- Direccion: Mex Urtizberea, Alberto Muñoz, Nora Moseinco, Lucrecia Martel.
http://wn.com/Magazine_For_Fai__Correo_Sentimental
Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicle Funny Moments (Part 1)
Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicle Funny Moments I make this a long ago and It is very long Sorry!!!
http://wn.com/Tsubasa_Resevoir_Chronicle_Funny_Moments_Part_1
FAI F3C 2009 Hiroki Ito Japan
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:43
- Published: 09 Aug 2009
- Uploaded: 13 Nov 2011
- Author: choppersrc
TRIBUTE TO OUR USO SONNY FAI
TRIBUTE TO OUR USO SONNY FAI WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOU AND WILL STILL SEARCH FOR YOU USO
http://wn.com/TRIBUTE_TO_OUR_USO_SONNY_FAI
INDIAN MEDIA ON GHULAM NABI FAI ARESSTED IN AMRICA 21-7-11.flv
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:33
- Published: 21 Jul 2011
- Uploaded: 21 Jul 2011
- Author: kashmirmediaall
photo: AP / Sergei Grits
29 Nov 2011
Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni has agreed a contract extension which will run until the 2014 World Cup. The Football Association of Ireland have rewarded the Italian coach for his...
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photo: AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky
16 Nov 2011
Having qualified for their first major tournament since the 2002 World Cup, Irish football's governing body is ready to discuss the veteran Italian manager's future Sign up with 188BET for a FREE bet...
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Malaysia first in region to host FAI confab
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A fairy tale is a type of short narrative that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies. The stories may nonetheless be distinguished from other folk narratives such as legends (which generally involve belief in the veracity of the events described) and explicitly moral tales, including beast fables.
In less technical contexts, the term is also used to describe something blessed with unusual happiness, as in "fairy tale ending" (a happy ending) or "fairy tale romance" (though not all fairy tales end happily). Colloquially, a "fairy tale" or "fairy story" can also mean any far-fetched story or tall tale.
In cultures where demons and witches are perceived as real, fairy tales may merge into legends, where the narrative is perceived both by teller and hearers as being grounded in historical truth. However, unlike legends and epics, they usually do not contain more than superficial references to religion and actual places, people, and events; they take place once upon a time rather than in actual times.
Fairy tales are found in oral and in literary form. The history of the fairy tale is particularly difficult to trace, because only the literary forms can survive. Still, the evidence of literary works at least indicates that fairy tales have existed for thousands of years, although not perhaps recognized as a genre; the name "fairy tale" was first ascribed to them by Madame d'Aulnoy in the late 17th century. Many of today's fairy tales have evolved from centuries-old stories that have appeared, with variations, in multiple cultures around the world. Fairy tales, and works derived from fairy tales, are still written today.
The older fairy tales were intended for an audience of adults as well as children, but they were associated with children as early as the writings of the précieuses; the Brothers Grimm titled their collection Children's and Household Tales, and the link with children has only grown stronger with time.
Folklorists have classified fairy tales in various ways. Among the most notable are the Aarne-Thompson classification system and the morphological analysis of Vladimir Propp. Other folklorists have interpreted the tales' significance, but no school has been definitively established for the meaning of the tales.
Definition
Although the fairy tale is a distinct genre within the larger category of folktale, the definition that marks a work as a fairy tale is a source of considerable dispute. One universally agreed-upon matter is that fairy tales do not require fairies. (The term itself comes from the translation of Madame D'Aulnoy's conte de fées, first used in her collection in 1697.) Common parlance conflates fairy tales with beast fables and other folktales, and scholars differ on the degree to which the presence of fairies and/or similarly mythical beings (e.g., elves, goblins, trolls, giants) should be taken as a differentiator. Vladimir Propp, in his Morphology of the Folktale, criticized the common distinction between "fairy tales" and "animal tales" on the grounds that many tales contained both fantastic elements and animals. Nevertheless, to select works for his analysis, Propp used all Russian folktales classified as a folk lore Aarne-Thompson 300-749—in a cataloguing system that made such a distinction—to gain a clear set of tales. His own analysis identified fairy tales by their plot elements, but that in itself has been criticized, as the analysis does not lend itself easily to tales that do not involve a quest, and furthermore, the same plot elements are found in non-fairy tale works.
As Stith Thompson points out, talking animals and the presence of magic seem to be more common to the fairy tale than fairies themselves. However, the mere presence of animals that talk does not make a tale a fairy tale, especially when the animal is clearly a mask on a human face, as in fables.
In his essay "On Fairy-Stories", J. R. R. Tolkien agreed with the exclusion of "fairies" from the definition, defining fairy tales as stories about the adventures of men in Faërie, the land of fairies, fairytale princes and princesses, dwarves, elves, and not only other magical species but many other marvels. However, the same essay excludes tales that are often considered fairy tales, citing as an example The Monkey's Heart, which Andrew Lang included in The Lilac Fairy Book.
Steven Swann Jones identified the presence of magic as the feature by which fairy tales can be distinguished from other sorts of folktales. Davidson and Chaudri identify "transformation" as the key feature of the genre. From a psychological point of view, Jean Chiriac argued for the necessity of the fantastic in these narratives.
Some folklorists prefer to use the German term Märchen or "wonder tale" to refer to the genre, a practice given weight by the definition of Thompson in his 1977 edition of The Folktale: "a tale of some length involving a succession of motifs or episodes. It moves in an unreal world without definite locality or definite creatures and is filled with the marvelous. In this never-never land, humble heroes kill adversaries, succeed to kingdoms and marry princesses." The characters and motifs of fairy tales are simple and archetypal: princesses and goose-girls; youngest sons and gallant princes; ogres, giants, dragons, and trolls; wicked stepmothers and false heroes; fairy godmothers and other magical helpers, often talking horses, or foxes, or birds; glass mountains; and prohibitions and breaking of prohibitions.
In terms of aesthetic values, Italo Calvino cited the fairy tale as a prime example of "quickness" in literature, because of the economy and concision of the tales.
History of the genre
Originally, stories we would now call fairy tales were not marked out as a separate genre. The German term "Märchen" literally translates as "tale"—not any specific type of tale. Roots of the genre come from different oral stories passed down in European cultures. The first significant person to record fairy tales was Charles Perrault who recorded stories such as Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella in his book of Mother Goose fairy tales. The fairy tale emerged as an unquestioned genre in the works of the Brothers Grimm, who recorded various tales from different cultures and revised many of Perrault's. In this evolution, the name was coined when the précieuses took up writing literary stories; Madame d'Aulnoy invented the term conte de fée, or fairy tale, in the late 17th century.Before the definition of the genre of fantasy, many works that would now be classified as fantasy were termed "fairy tales", including Tolkien's The Hobbit, George Orwell's Animal Farm, and L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Indeed, Tolkien's "On Fairy-Stories" includes discussions of world-building and is considered a vital part of fantasy criticism. Although fantasy, particularly the sub-genre of fairytale fantasy, draws heavily on fairy tale motifs, the genres are now regarded as distinct.
Folk and literary
The fairy tale, told orally, is a sub-class of the folktale. Many writers have written in the form of the fairy tale. These are the literary fairy tales, or Kunstmärchen. The oldest forms, from Panchatantra to the Pentamerone, show considerable reworking from the oral form. The Brothers Grimm were among the first to try to preserve the features of oral tales. Yet the stories printed under the Grimm name have been considerably reworked to fit the written form.Literary fairy tales and oral fairy tales freely exchanged plots, motifs, and elements with one another and with the tales of foreign lands. Many 18th-century folklorists attempted to recover the "pure" folktale, uncontaminated by literary versions. Yet while oral fairy tales likely existed for thousands of years before the literary forms, there is no pure folktale. And each literary fairy tale draws on folk traditions, if only in parody. This makes it impossible to trace forms of transmission of a fairy tale. Oral story-tellers have been known to read literary fairy tales to increase their own stock of stories and treatments.
History
The oral tradition of the fairy tale came long before the written page. Tales were told or enacted dramatically, rather than written down, and handed down from generation to generation. Because of this, the history of their development is necessarily obscure. The oldest known written fairy tales stem from ancient Egypt, c. 1300 BC (ex. The Tale of Two Brothers), and fairy tales appear, now and again, in written literature throughout literate cultures, as in The Golden Ass, which includes Cupid and Psyche (Roman, 100–200 AD), or the Panchatantra (India 3rd century BCE), but it is unknown to what extent these reflect the actual folk tales even of their own time. The stylistic evidence indicates that these, and many later collections, reworked folk tales into literary forms. In the broader definition of the genre, the first famous Western fairy tales are those of Aesop (6th century BC) in ancient Greece.Jack Zipes writes in When Dreams Came True, "There are fairy tale elements in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, and ... in many of William Shakespeare plays". King Lear can be considered a literary variant of fairy tales such as Water and Salt and Cap O' Rushes. The tale itself resurfaced in Western literature in the 16th and 17th centuries, with The Facetious Nights of Straparola by Giovanni Francesco Straparola (Italy, 1550 and 1553), which contains many fairy tales in its inset tales, and the Neapolitan tales of Giambattista Basile (Naples, 1634–6), which are all fairy tales. Carlo Gozzi made use of many fairy tale motifs among his Commedia dell'Arte scenarios, including among them one based on The Love For Three Oranges (1761). Simultaneously, Pu Songling, in China, included many fairy tales in his collection, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (published posthumously, 1766). The fairy tale itself became popular among the précieuses of upper-class France (1690–1710), and among the tales told in that time were the ones of La Fontaine and the Contes of Charles Perrault (1697), who fixed the forms of Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. Although Straparola's, Basile's and Perrault's collections contain the oldest known forms of various fairy tales, on the stylistic evidence, all the writers rewrote the tales for literary effect.
The first collectors to attempt to preserve not only the plot and characters of the tale, but also the style in which they were told, were the Brothers Grimm, collecting German fairy tales; ironically, this meant although their first edition (1812 & 1815) remains a treasure for folklorists, they rewrote the tales in later editions to make them more acceptable, which ensured their sales and the later popularity of their work.
Such literary forms did not merely draw from the folktale, but also influenced folktales in turn. The Brothers Grimm rejected several tales for their collection, though told orally to them by Germans, because the tales derived from Perrault, and they concluded they were thereby French and not German tales; an oral version of Bluebeard was thus rejected, and the tale of Briar Rose, clearly related to Perrault's Sleeping Beauty, was included only because Jacob Grimm convinced his brother that the figure of Brynhildr, from much earlier Norse mythology, proved that the sleeping princess was authentically Germanic folklore.
This consideration of whether to keep Sleeping Beauty reflected a belief common among folklorists of the 19th century: that the folk tradition preserved fairy tales in forms from pre-history except when "contaminated" by such literary forms, leading people to tell inauthentic tales. The rural, illiterate, and uneducated peasants, if suitably isolated, were the folk and would tell pure folk tales. Sometimes they regarded fairy tales as a form of fossil, the remnants of a once-perfect tale. However, further research has concluded that fairy tales never had a fixed form, and regardless of literary influence, the tellers constantly altered them for their own purposes.
The work of the Brothers Grimm influenced other collectors, both inspiring them to collect tales and leading them to similarly believe, in a spirit of romantic nationalism, that the fairy tales of a country were particularly representative of it, to the neglect of cross-cultural influence. Among those influenced were the Russian Alexander Afanasyev (first published in 1866), the Norwegians Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe (first published in 1845), the Romanian Petre Ispirescu (first published in 1874), the English Joseph Jacobs (first published in 1890), and Jeremiah Curtin, an American who collected Irish tales (first published in 1890). They also encouraged other collectors of fairy tales, as when Yei Theodora Ozaki created a collection, Japanese Fairy Tales (1908), after encouragement from Lang. Simultaneously, writers such as Hans Christian Andersen and George MacDonald continued the tradition of literary fairy tales. Andersen's work sometimes drew on old folktales, but more often deployed fairytale motifs and plots in new tales. MacDonald incorporated fairytale motifs both in new literary fairy tales, such as The Light Princess, and in works of the genre that would become fantasy, as in The Princess and the Goblin or Lilith.
Cross-cultural transmission
Two theories of origins have attempted to explain the common elements in fairy tales found spread over continents. One is that a single point of origin generated any given tale, which then spread over the centuries; the other is that such fairy tales stem from common human experience and therefore can appear separately in many different origins.Fairy tales with very similar plots, characters, and motifs are found spread across many different cultures. Many researchers hold this to be caused by the spread of such tales, as people repeat tales they have heard in foreign lands, although the oral nature makes it impossible to trace the route except by inference. Folklorists have attempted to determine the origin by internal evidence, which can not always be clear; Joseph Jacobs, comparing the Scottish tale The Ridere of Riddles with the version collected by the Brothers Grimm, The Riddle, noted that in The Ridere of Riddles one hero ends up polygamously married, which might point to an ancient custom, but in The Riddle, the simpler riddle might argue greater antiquity.
Folklorists of the "Finnish" (or historical-geographical) school attempted to place fairy tales to their origin, with inconclusive results. Sometimes influence, especially within a limited area and time, is clearer, as when considering the influence of Perrault's tales on those collected by the Brothers Grimm. Little Briar-Rose appears to stem from Perrault's Sleeping Beauty, as the Grimms' tale appears to be the only independent German variant. Similarly, the close agreement between the opening of Grimms' version of Little Red Riding Hood and Perrault's tale points to an influence—although Grimms' version adds a different ending (perhaps derived from The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids).
Fairy tales also tend to take on the color of their location, through the choice of motifs, the style in which they are told, and the depiction of character and local color.
Association with children
Originally, adults were the audience of a fairy tale just as often as children. Literary fairy tales appeared in works intended for adults, but in the 19th and 20th centuries the fairy tale became associated with children's literature.The précieuses, including Madame d'Aulnoy, intended their works for adults, but regarded their source as the tales that servants, or other women of lower class, would tell to children. Indeed, a novel of that time, depicting a countess's suitor offering to tell such a tale, has the countess exclaim that she loves fairy tales as if she were still a child. Among the late précieuses, Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont redacted a version of Beauty and the Beast for children, and it is her tale that is best known today. The Brothers Grimm titled their collection Children's and Household Tales and rewrote their tales after complaints that they were not suitable for children.
In the modern era, fairy tales were altered so that they could be read to children. The Brothers Grimm concentrated mostly on eliminating sexual references; Rapunzel, in the first edition, revealed the prince's visits by asking why her clothing had grown tight, thus letting the witch deduce that she was pregnant, but in subsequent editions carelessly revealed that it was easier to pull up the prince than the witch. On the other hand, in many respects, violence – particularly when punishing villains – was increased. Other, later, revisions cut out violence; J. R. R. Tolkien noted that The Juniper Tree often had its cannibalistic stew cut out in a version intended for children. The moralizing strain in the Victorian era altered the classical tales to teach lessons, as when George Cruikshank rewrote Cinderella in 1854 to contain temperance themes. His acquaintance Charles Dickens protested, "In an utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that fairy tales should be respected."
Psychoanalysts such as Bruno Bettelheim, who regarded the cruelty of older fairy tales as indicative of psychological conflicts, strongly criticized this expurgation, because it weakened their usefulness to both children and adults as ways of symbolically resolving issues.
The adaptation of fairy tales for children continues. Walt Disney's influential Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was largely (although certainly not solely) intended for the children's market. The anime Magical Princess Minky Momo draws on the fairy tale Momotarō. Jack Zipes has spent many years working to make the older traditional tales accessible to modern readers and their children.
In Waldorf schools, fairy tales are used in the first grade as a central part of the curriculum. Rudolf Steiner's work on human development claims that at age six to seven, the mind of a child is best taught through storytelling. The archetypes and magical nature of fairy tales appeals strongly to children of these ages. The nature of fairy tales, following the oral tradition, enhances the child's ability to visualize a spoken narrative, as well as to remember the story as heard.
Contemporary tales
Literary
In contemporary literature, many authors have used the form of fairy tales for various reasons, such as examining the human condition from the simple framework a fairytale provides. Some authors seek to recreate a sense of the fantastic in a contemporary discourse. Some writers use fairy tale forms for modern issues; this can include using the psychological dramas implicit in the story, as when Robin McKinley retold Donkeyskin as the novel Deerskin, with emphasis on the abusive treatment the father of the tale dealt to his daughter. Sometimes, especially in children's literature, fairy tales are retold with a twist simply for comic effect, such as The Stinky Cheese Man by Jon Scieszka and The ASBO Fairy Tales by Chris Pilbeam. A common comic motif is a world where all the fairy tales take place, and the characters are aware of their role in the story, such as in the film series Shrek.Other authors may have specific motives, such as multicultural or feminist reevaluations of predominantly Eurocentric masculine-dominated fairy tales, implying critique of older narratives. The figure of the damsel in distress has been particularly attacked by many feminist critics. Examples of narrative reversal rejecting this figure include The Paperbag Princess by Robert Munsch, a picture book aimed at children in which a princess rescues a prince, and Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, which retells a number of fairy tales from a female point of view.
One use of the genre occurred in a military technology journal named Defense AT&L;, which published an article as a fairytale titled Optimizing Bi-Modal Signal/Noise Ratios. Written by Maj. Dan Ward (USAF), the story uses a fairy named Garble to represent breakdowns in communication between operators and technology developers. Ward's article was heavily influenced by George MacDonald.
Other notable figures who have employed fairy tales include Oscar Wilde, Jean Ingelow, Sara Coleridge, Kathryn Davis, A. S. Byatt, Italo Calvino, Jane Yolen, Terri Windling, Donald Barthelme, Robert Coover, Margaret Atwood, Kate Bernheimer, Espido Freire, Tanith Lee, James Thurber, Robin McKinley, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Kelly Link, Bruce Holland Rogers, Donna Jo Napoli, Cameron Dokey, Rikki Ducornet, Robert Bly, Gail Carson Levine, Katie Farris, Annette Marie Hyder, Jasper Fforde, and many others.
It may be hard to lay down the rule between fairy tales and fantasies that use fairy tale motifs, or even whole plots, but the distinction is commonly made, even within the works of a single author: George MacDonald's Lilith and Phantastes are regarded as fantasies, while his "The Light Princess", "The Golden Key", and "The Wise Woman" are commonly called fairy tales. The most notable distinction is that fairytale fantasies, like other fantasies, make use of novelistic writing conventions of prose, characterization, or setting.
Film
Fairy tales have been enacted dramatically; records exist of this in commedia dell'arte, and later in pantomime. The advent of cinema has meant that such stories could be presented in a more plausible manner, with the use of special effects and animation; the Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 was a ground-breaking film for fairy tales and, indeed, fantasy in general. Disney's influence helped establish this genre as a children's genre, and has been blamed for simplification of fairy tales ending in situations where everything goes right, as opposed to the pain and suffering — and sometimes unhappy endings — of many folk fairy tales.Many filmed fairy tales have been made primarily for children, from Disney's later works to Aleksandr Rou's retelling of Vasilissa the Beautiful, the first Soviet film to use Russian folk tales in a big-budget feature. Others have used the conventions of fairy tales to create new stories with sentiments more relevant to contemporary life, as in Labyrinth, My Neighbor Totoro, the films of Michel Ocelot, and Happily N'Ever After.
Other works have retold familiar fairy tales in a darker, more horrific or psychological variant aimed primarily at adults. Notable examples are Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast and The Company of Wolves, based on an Angela Carter's retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. Likewise, Princess Mononoke, Pan's Labyrinth, Suspiria, and Spike create new stories in this genre from fairy tale and folklore motifs.
In comics and animated TV series, The Sandman, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Princess Tutu, Fables and MÄR all make use of standard fairy tale elements to various extents but are more accurately categorised as fairytale fantasy due to the definite locations and characters which a longer narrative requires.
A more modern cinematic fairy tale would be Luchino Visconti’s Le Notti Bianche, starring Marcello Mastroianni before he became a superstar. It involves many of the romantic conventions of fairy tales, yet it takes place in post-World War II Italy, and it ends realistically.
Motifs
Any comparison of fairy tales quickly discovers that many fairy tales have features in common with each other. Two of the most influential classifications are those of Antti Aarne, as revised by Stith Thompson into the Aarne-Thompson classification system, and Vladimir Propp's Morphology of the Folk Tale.
Aarne-Thompson
This system groups fairy and folk tales according to their overall plot. Common, identifying features are picked out to decide which tales are grouped together. Much therefore depends on what features are regarded as decisive.For instance, tales like Cinderella – in which a persecuted heroine, with the help of the fairy godmother or similar magical helper, attends an event (or three) in which she wins the love of a prince and is identified as his true bride – are classified as type 510, the persecuted heroine. Some such tales are The Wonderful Birch, Aschenputtel, Katie Woodencloak, The Story of Tam and Cam, Ye Xian, Cap O' Rushes, Catskin, Fair, Brown and Trembling, Finette Cendron, Allerleirauh, and Tattercoats.
Further analysis of the tales shows that in Cinderella, The Wonderful Birch, The Story of Tam and Cam, Ye Xian, and Aschenputtel, the heroine is persecuted by her stepmother and refused permission to go to the ball or other event, and in Fair, Brown and Trembling and Finette Cendron by her sisters and other female figures, and these are grouped as 510A; while in Cap O' Rushes, Catskin, and Allerleirauh, the heroine is driven from home by her father's persecutions, and must take work in a kitchen elsewhere, and these are grouped as 510B. But in Katie Woodencloak, she is driven from home by her stepmother's persecutions and must take service in a kitchen elsewhere, and in Tattercoats, she is refused permission to go to the ball by her grandfather. Given these features common with both types of 510, Katie Woodencloak is classified as 510A because the villain is the stepmother, and Tattercoats as 510B because the grandfather fills the father's role.
This system has its weaknesses in the difficulty of having no way to classify subportions of a tale as motifs. Rapunzel is type 310 (The Maiden in the Tower), but it opens with a child being demanded in return for stolen food, as does Puddocky; but Puddocky is not a Maiden in the Tower tale, while The Canary Prince, which opens with a jealous stepmother, is.
It also lends itself to emphasis on the common elements, to the extent that the folklorist describes The Black Bull of Norroway as the same story as Beauty and the Beast. This can be useful as a shorthand but can also erase the coloring and details of a story.
Morphology
Vladimir Propp specifically studied a collection of Russian fairy tales, but his analysis has been found useful for the tales of other countries. Having criticized Aarne-Thompson type analysis for ignoring what motifs did in stories, and because the motifs used were not clearly distinct, he analyzed the tales for the function each character and action fulfilled and concluded that a tale was composed of thirty-one elements and eight character types. While the elements were not all required for all tales, when they appeared they did so in an invariant order — except that each individual element might be negated twice, so that it would appear three times, as when, in Brother and Sister, the brother resists drinking from enchanted streams twice, so that it is the third that enchants him.One such element is the donor who gives the hero magical assistance, often after testing him. In The Golden Bird, the talking fox tests the hero by warning him against entering an inn and, after he succeeds, helps him find the object of his quest; in The Boy Who Drew Cats, the priest advised the hero to stay in small places at night, which protects him from an evil spirit; in Cinderella, the fairy godmother gives Cinderella the dresses she needs to attend the ball, as their mothers' spirits do in Bawang Putih Bawang Merah and The Wonderful Birch; in The Fox Sister, a Buddhist monk gives the brothers magical bottles to protect against the fox spirit. The roles can be more complicated. In The Red Ettin, the role is split into the mother – who offers the hero the whole of a journey cake with her curse or half with her blessing – and when he takes the half, a fairy who gives him advice; in Mr Simigdáli, the sun, the moon, and the stars all give the heroine a magical gift. Characters who are not always the donor can act like the donor. In Kallo and the Goblins, the villain goblins also give the heroine gifts, because they are tricked; in Schippeitaro, the evil cats betray their secret to the hero, giving him the means to defeat them. Other fairy tales, such as The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was, do not feature the donor.
Analogies have been drawn between this and the analysis of myths into the Hero's journey.
This analysis has been criticized for ignoring tone, mood, characters and, indeed, anything that differentiates one fairy tale from another.
Interpretations
Many variants, especially those intended for children, have had morals attached. Perrault concluded his versions with one, although not always completely moral: Cinderella concludes with the observation that her beauty and character would have been useless without her godmother, reflecting the importance of social connections.Many fairy tales have been interpreted for their (purported) significance. One mythological interpretation claimed that many fairy tales, including Hansel and Gretel, Sleeping Beauty, and The Frog King, all were solar myths; this mode of interpretation is rather less popular now. Many have also been subjected to Freudian, Jungian, and other psychological analysis, but no mode of interpretation has ever established itself definitively.
Specific analyses have often been criticized for lending great importance to motifs that are not, in fact, integral to the tale; this has often stemmed from treating one instance of a fairy tale as the definitive text, where the tale has been told and retold in many variations. In variants of Bluebeard, the wife's curiosity is betrayed by a blood-stained key, by an egg's breaking, or by the singing of a rose she wore, without affecting the tale, but interpretations of specific variants have claimed that the precise object is integral to the tale.
Other folklorists have interpreted tales as historical documents. Many German folklorists, believing the tales to have been preserved from ancient times, used Grimms' tales to explain ancient customs. Other folklorists have explained the figure of the wicked stepmother historically: many women did die in childbirth, their husbands remarried, and the new stepmothers competed with the children of the first marriage for resources.
Compilations
:''See also: Collections of fairy talesAuthors and works:
See also
Notes
References
External links
Category:Folklore Category:Fiction Category:Literary devices Category:Persuasion techniques
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