What are fables? We will answer this question. Non-fiction or fiction is a genre of folklore, which is a poetic or prosaic narrative, small in volume, mainly of comic content, the plot of which is an image of reality, deliberately distorted.
Fiction definition
V.Ya. Propp, a philologist-folklorist, answered the question of what fables are - this is one of the varieties of the fairy-tale genre, where reality is turned inside out. They relate to them narratives of events that are completely impossible in life, such as, for example, a person falling into the swamp on his shoulders, a duck on his head making a nest and laying eggs, and then a wolf comes to feast on them.
Russian fables
For centuries in Russia there was a school of folklore for children aged 4 to 12 years, in which everyone showed himself with great enthusiasm and hunting, it was called fiction.
This genre was founded by buffoons, storytellers, lucky for funny songs and words, playing in villages and cities on hooters and waxwings.
In a study of domestic folklore conducted by Andrei Sinyavsky, unprecedentedness and fiction were highlighted, which he calls stories about events that never existed and could never have been. That's what fables are (definition by Andrey Sinyavsky). That is, these are phrases and situations, frankly illogical, which are designed to produce a comic effect. As an example, he cites one fragment from The Northern Tales, written by N. E. Onchukov. It says that one man put an ax on his bare foot, girded with an ax, chopped wood with a sash. His wife was beautiful - as he looks out the window, so the dogs bark for three days. That's what fables are. The definition of this genre was given at the beginning of the article.
Differences between bored tales and fables
Andrei Sinyavsky also notes that in fables, in order to achieve a comic effect, the words put side by side change their meanings. Like bored tales, fabulousness is a parody of a fairy tale as such. The difference between them is that different parties are parodied. Bringing meaningless tales to the principle of extension and connectedness. Only the empty form remains from it: a chain of words, rolled up into a ring, stretched to infinity. In fabulousness, the very content of the fairy tale plot with its tendency towards the supernatural and miraculous is brought to absurdity. That's what fables are.
Fiction in America
American folklore, as an integral part, has a fiction genre that goes back to bragging competitions in the Wild West. Toastmasters International organizes oratory contests every two years, which as a single component can include the narration of various fables. In this case, the participant is given a story of 3-5 minutes, and then it is evaluated by the jury.
The following characters are among the most popular heroes of fables in America, some of which are also historical: the lumberjack giant Paul Banyan, who took the ax in his hands on the second day after his birth; Pete Cord, his younger brother; Tony Beaver Pecos Bill, Daniel Boone and others.
Non-fables in other countries
As a rule, the action of fiction (folklore of Australia) takes place in a bush, for example, on Spiva, the legendary ranch. Their main characters are Big Bill, digging wells designed for coal mining, the most stupid rancher; as well as the famous strigal, who had great power, named Krivoy Mick. This character also appears in Alan Marshall's Whisper in the Wind.
A popular hero of various fables in Canada is Joe Mafero, a legendary character, a giant lumberjack.
Non-fables in the culture of modernity
A popular means of telling them at the beginning of the 20th century was the image made on postcards. Their creators usually combined drawing and photography, used changing perspectives and editing to depict the fishing of giant fish, hunting huge animals or riding them, growing extraordinary sizes of crops. Also fabulous (what fables are, read at the beginning of the article) are various facts about Chuck Norris - humorous stories about him.
The use of fables in fiction
They are typical mainly for oral folklore, but there are also literary fables, mainly based on various subjects from folklore. Examples are the following: the adventures of Munchausen as presented by the writer Erich Raspe, Gargantua and Pantagruel from the novel of the same name by Rabelais, Pomeranian tales by Stepan Pisakhov and Boris Shergin. This also includes the poem "Confusion" by Korney Chukovsky, which consists entirely of shifters.
Chukovsky shows children that the behavior of animals is correct. The basis of this tale is the fight against evil: the sea was set on fire by the foxes who took the matches. The denouement was unexpected: no one could put out it, only a small butterfly was able to do it.
In the struggle for a fairy tale in the 1920s, Chukovsky had to deal with educators who claimed that it was an element of an obsolete bourgeois culture, they even published a scientific work - a whole collection of articles entitled "We are against a fairy tale." A lot of insulting was also addressed to the shifters. It was Chukovsky who revived this genre. Today, fortunately, the attitude to the tale is completely different.
Samuel Marshak (years of life - 1887-1964) composed famous poems about a scattered person from Basseynaya street. They were created in the pre-war era, when the writer lived in Leningrad, not far from the existing Basseynaya Street (today it is called Nekrasov Street).
Fiction Functions
In childhood, the first logical exercises are the separation of the functions of the subject, endowing it with unusual characteristics. Children come up with shifters and fables themselves. Korney Chukovsky wrote that the usefulness of such tales and poems is obvious: any deviation from the norm strengthens the child in her, he appreciates the solid orientation in this world higher and higher. The child seems to take an exam and withstands his mental powers, which raises confidence in the intellect, self-esteem, so necessary for children so as not to get lost in our chaotic world.
Non-fiction for an adult are verbal abracadabras, absurdities, and for a child - funny stories about what really cannot be. Note that from time immemorial, this kind of folklore has existed among the people , and oral folklore preserves only the best, filtering out the useless. The child, gradually discovering the laws of this world, making new considerations, begins to gradually play with various concepts, since only through playing the small person can understand the structure of the universe.
Children, turning over various phenomena, putting a new meaning into the known, learn to use and better manage various concepts, form a fantasy, freedom of thinking, due to which they begin to feel and understand humor.
We examined what fables are. The definition, types, functions of them have also been studied by us. As you can see, this genre is quite interesting and useful. Nursery rhymes and fables are not just entertaining stories, they serve well-defined, serious goals, helping to shape the personality of the child.