Literary fairy tale as a genre, of course, is a full and full-fledged direction of literature. It seems that the demand for these works will never be exhausted, they will certainly and constantly be in demand by both children and adults of all ages. Today, this genre is more universal than ever. Literary tales and their authors are popular, although there are certain setbacks. There is still a connection with folklore, but modern realities and details are also used. The list of literary tales is quite large. Trying to identify only the very most, you can write more than one sheet of paper. But still try to do this in this article.
Features of a literary fairy tale
How does it differ from folklore, folk. Well, firstly, by the fact that she has a specific author, writer or poet (if she is in verse). And folklore, as you know, involves collective creativity. The peculiarities of a literary fairy tale is that it combines the principles of both folklore and literature. You could say that: this is the next step in the evolution of folklore. Indeed, many authors retell famous stories of fairy tales, considered folk, using the same characters. And sometimes they come up with new original heroes and talk about their adventures. The original may be the name. Hundreds of literary tales have been invented, but everyone has a specific authorship and a pronounced author's position.
A bit of history
Turning to the origins of the author’s tale, we can conditionally note the Egyptian “On Two Brothers”, recorded in the 13th century BC. Also remember the Greek epics "Iliad" and "Odyssey", the authorship of which is attributed to Homer. And in the Middle Ages, church parables are nothing more than a semblance of a literary fairy tale. At the time of the Renaissance, the list of literary tales would probably be a collection of short stories by famous writers.
The genre was further developed in the 17th and 18th centuries in the European tales of S. Perrault and A. Gallan, Russian - M. Chulkov. And in the 19th, a whole galaxy of brilliant authors in different countries uses a literary fairy tale. European - Hoffmann, Andersen, for example. Russians - Zhukovsky, Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Leskov. The list of literary tales in the 20th century is expanded by A. Tolstoy, A. Lindgren, A. Milne, K. Chukovsky, B. Zakhoder, S. Marshak and many other equally famous authors.
Tales of Pushkin
The concept of "literary author's tale", perhaps, best illustrates the work of Alexander Pushkin. In principle, these works: fairy tales “About Tsar Saltan”, “About the Fisherman and the Fish”, “About the Priest and His Worker Balda”, “About the Golden Cockerel”, “About the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights” - were not planned for presentation to the children's audience . However, due to circumstances and talent, the author was soon on the list for children to read. Vivid images, well-remembered lines of poems put these tales into the category of the unconditional classics of the genre. However, few people know that Pushkin used folk tales as the basis for the plots of his works, such as “The Greedy Old Woman”, “The Old Man Shabarsh”, “The Tale of Wonderful Children”. And in the folk art itself, the poet saw an inexhaustible source of images and plots.
List of Literary Tales
You can talk for a long time about the originality of paraphrases and alterations. But in this regard, it would be best to recall Tolstoy’s famous fairy tale “Pinocchio”, which the author “rewrote” from the Collodius “Pinocchio”. Carlo Collodi himself, in turn, used the folk image of a wooden street theater doll. But "Pinocchio" is a completely different, author's tale. In many respects, according to some critics, it surpassed the original in terms of its literary and artistic value, at least for the Russian-speaking reader.
From the original literary tales, where the characters were invented by the author himself, two stories can be distinguished about Winnie the Pooh, who lives with his friends in the Stochrov Forest. The magical and optimistic atmosphere created in the works, the characters of the inhabitants of the Forest, their characters are striking in their unusualness. Although here, in terms of organizing the narrative, a technique previously used by Kipling was used.
In this context, the tales of Astrid Lindgren about the funny flying Carlson, who lives on the roof, and the Kid, who becomes his friend, are also interesting.
Screen adaptations of literary tales
It should be noted that literary tales are a fertile and inexhaustible material for film adaptations, artistic and cartoonish. What is the adaptation of the cycle of fairy tales by John Tolkien (Tolkien) about the adventures of the hobbit Baggins (in one of the first translations into Russian - Sumkins).
Or the world famous epic about young wizards and Harry Potter! And cartoons don't have numbers at all. Here you and Carlson, and the Wizard of the Emerald City, and other heroes, characters of literary tales familiar to everyone from childhood.