Discovering Traditional Literature: Folktales, Fables, Fairytales, Myths

1. Traditional Literature Folktales, Fables, Fairytales, Myths

2. Why learn about Traditional Literature? • Serves as the building blocks for contemporary literature/framework for literature • Provides a window on diverse cultures • Provides moral models for children as the struggle between good and evil is applied to events in their own lives

3. Folktale • A story told by word of mouth to teach a lesson • Passed down from generation to generation • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceqMz_dKlzA

4. Folk tale • Folktales feature common people, such as peasants, and commonplace events. • Characters representing human frailty (being fragile). • Characters represent human qualities • Good • Evil • Wisdom • Foolishness • Laziness • Etc.

5. Folktales • The conflict of the story is clear. • The resolution usually has happy endings • Good is rewarded and evil is punished • Elements of magic or magical characters may be incorporated, but logic rules so the supernatural must make sense in the story.

6. Fables • Short stories that teach a moral (lesson) • Plot is very brief, with one event. • Animal characters with human characteristics • Characters are flat, and stand for one human trait. • Themes: cooperation, understanding, acceptance, etc. • Morals sometimes are inferred. • May be expressed in a proverb. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeZe2qPLPh0

7. Aesop's Fables • a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and storyteller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. Of diverse origins, the stories associated with Aesop's name have descended to modern times through a number of sources.

8. Aesop's Fables • This famous Book of Fables, which are always referred to as Aesop's Fables, date back to the 5th Century BC. • Lion and the Mouse • The Fox and the Crow • Goose with the Golden Eggs • Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing • The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse • Ant and the Grasshopper

9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzyvmC1FAt0 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKWktweAZb0

10. Fairytale Elements of a Fairytale • Contains magic/enchantments • Likely character types: • Talking animals • Witches • Fairies • Nobles (Kings, Queens, Princes, Princesses) • Godparents

11. Fairy Tale- setting • Setting does not have a definite location or time • Familiar fairytales look like Germany • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68eUVT2H4YY

12. The best know tale in the World Cinderella • The oldest known version was found in China in the 9th century. • It is basically a story of sibling rivalry. • There are over 700 different versions. 

13. Hans Christian Anderson • Danish author and poet • Wrote more than 160 Fairy Tales • Many of Andersen's fairy tales depict characters who gain happiness in life after suffering and conflicts • Ugly Duckling theme of self-discovery, which matched his own life • Optimistic belief in the triumph of the good • Known as the father of the modern fairytale Click on Anderson’s picture to see his stories

14. Brothers Grimm • Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm and Wilhelm Carl Grimm • Wrote children’s tales and folklore to preserve German culture/heritage • Wrote 211 stories together Click picture for Grimm stories More stories

15. Fractured Fairy tale • When authors modernize or change one or more of the elements of the story, the story is called a fractured fairy tale. • Plot (conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution) • Setting (time and/or place) • Character (name, character traits) • Point of View • Theme

16. Fractured Fairy tales

17. Fracture Fairy Tales on the screen

18. Myths • A mythology is a related body of stories which make up the official beliefs or explanations of a religious system. • Myths attempt to explain the beginning of the world, natural phenomena, the relationships between the gods and humans, and the origins of civilization. • Myths, like legends, are stories told as though they were true.

19. Myths • Ancient Civilizations stories and beliefs