Exploring the Evolution of Folk Tales
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ScribdTranslationsTHE POPULAR TALE
General considerations
"The story is present in all times, in all places,"
in all societies. It begins with the very history of
Humanity: all classes, all human groups have their
stories, and very often, those stories are enjoyed together
by men of diverse culture." (Roland BARTHES)
It is not unreasonable to think, therefore, that the STORY was born in Prehistory.
by the fire of a cave, where a hunter was narrating to the
members of their tribe incidents or episodes, real or invented, that
had lived or what had been told to someone or what was the result of
your imagination.
TODAY, fortunately, one can hear a storyteller in a square of a Moroccan city,
in an oriental market, in a remote place in the Amazon, in small
African villages.
Even today, we can hear artists and storytellers in cafes,
theaters or libraries in European or American cities. BUT...
For many centuries, the TALE was considered as
a "popular" or "children's" literary genre,
being, therefore, despised by cultured literature,
that he did not pick it up and study it until the Romanticism,
although he did make use of it, including some examples
-not a few- in novels and comedies of the Golden Ages,
fundamentally.
Furthermore, it is a polysemous term:
It can mean "joke"
The 'gossip': 'don't come with stories'
The fatuous discourse: 'that's just stories'
"The 'tricks': 'don't come to me with stories'"
Or what the expression 'living off the story' means
El cuento, desde la Antigüedad, se ha incluido en grandes colecciones
Originating from the East, entering Spain in the Middle Ages, through the
Arabic versions:
Calila and Dimna (1251)
Sendebar (1253)
In Spain, during the Middle Ages, a literary tradition developed that was based on the
coexistence of Arab and Christian cultures, thus converging:
The APOLOGISTS (of oriental influences)
the characteristics of Christian Europe
Conde Lucanor(Don Juan Manuel)
Decamerón(Boccaccio)
The Canterbury Tales (Chaucer)
When the STORY has
didactic or instructive intention:
1. APOLOGY
Narrative form of "Oriental" origin - which can be in verse or prose -
although it is generally a short story or tale, which tells a
history, but which often contains allegorically (metaphor)
continued), a morality or an example. In it, personification is
constant: spirits, animals, plants or stones speak.
2. FABLE
For the RAEL, it is synonymous with Apology. The only difference is that the
Fables are usually written in verse, while parables are usually in prose.
written in prose (although it includes some verse at the end, carrying the
moral, in many cases).
Example / Examples
Type of medieval narrative, first in Latin, then in Romance language, that
we can consider a synonym of the Eastern Apologue: a story with
moral or instructive teaching that applies to man (perhaps it is here)
the only small difference).
Cf. Count Lucanor (Don Juan Manuel)
A wide repertoire of folk tales (let's remember that folklore
yes, according to the RAEL,
the set of traditions, customs, and beliefs of the classes
populars)
lived in Europe since the Middle Ages, were not collected until the
Romanticism (19th century), even some much later.
Interestingly, those stories did not contain morals (like those that...
yes they were collected earlier, e.g. by Perrault), but
How people used them to build themselves
an image of reality,
they showed how the world was made and
how can it be faced:
The world is made up of fools and cunning people, and it is better to be cunning.
Since Antiquity, we find examples of folk tales embedded
in literary works. Sometimes, we come across true surprises, because
stories appear in legal texts (in the Forals of Navarra or Castilla)
You can read stories that serve as examples to better understand a law.
In religious texts from the 11th and 12th centuries, it has been possible to find
a story that could be the distant precedent of the famous
the story of Little Red Riding Hood, it is about a girl dressed in
red riding hood who goes for a walk in the forest. But one day a wolf.
he finds it and takes it to his burrow to serve as food
to some wolf cubs. A prodigious divine intervention causes that
miraculously the girl is saved.
Regarding the story of Little Red Riding Hood:
Oral tradition (young children), version dated 1695
Meanwhile, the oral tradition remains alive
First written fixation (Ch. Perrault), 1697 (for adolescents)
New written fixations: the Grimms in the 19th century (for young children)
How is the story alive today? For what recipients?
INTERPRETATIONS OF THE STORIES
FOLKLORIC
INTERPRETATION INTERPRETATION
Psychoanalytic ANTHROPOLOGICAL
Bruno Bettelheim Robert Darnton
Based on the symbols, that Understand that nature
they associate with primitive past human varies a lot from a
of the collective unconscious place, of a time or even
They take a model for granted. de una cultura a otra.
human nature Aims to recreate the
invariable and true in social conditions in which one is
all places and times: e.g. they told the stories
that we all have a complex folkloric and compare them
of Oedipus. interpret them, having
always take the context into account
social.
TYPES of FOLK TALES
(Stith Thompson Classification:
Motif-Index of Folk-Literature. Copenhagen. Rosenkilde & Bagger, 1955-58
1. Wonderful tale (or fairy tale)
Story set in an indeterminate space or
unreal, with fantasy elements, of origin
anonymous, oral transmission and characters with
special powers (fairies, ogres, goblins,
witches, wizards.
For example, The Brothers Grimm Tales.
TYPES of FOLK TALES
2. The 'novella'
Story set in a real and localized space. For example: the tales
contents in The Thousand and One Nights.
3. Cuento heroico
Story similar to the previous one, but with actions related to a hero.
concrete, historical asset, fantastic asset.
4. The legend
Extraordinary account. It takes place in a specific location and is linked to it.
o a un personaje. Las hay realistas, maravillosas y religiosas.
5. The etiological tale
A narrative that attempts to explain the origin of something.
TYPES of FOLKTALES
6. The myth
A story that takes place in the past. It has similarities with etiological tales and
heroic, although with a religious meaning.
7. The tale of animals
Story featuring animals, highlighting their qualities
extremes: goodness or evil, cunning or foolishness, etc.
8. The fable
Animal tales, with didactic or moralizing intent, found in
a final part that is mandatory to attend, the moral.
9. The joke or facecia
Short story; comic or scatological character. Absurd contents
ANOTHER CLASSIFICATION
(See Arturo Medina, Rodríguez Almodóvar, etc.)
1st. Realistic stories, which include domestic chronicles, as well as
the events that happen which are not ordinary: that is to say, what happens every
days, and that what happens daily is admissible and credible. The characters of
these stories are men and women of flesh and blood, to whom things happen
something worth telling. We would include here the joke stories, the
riddles, and above all, the funny ones. They satisfy the curiosity of the
child, your desire to know and to laugh, which is inherent to every human being.
2nd. The marvelous tales: the prototype would be the fairy tale; in
they, the fabulous is the essential, but so is the transgression of the laws
natural. The established order is often broken, but the facts are transmitted.
with complete naturalness, as if they were totally logical; thus, moreover, the
understands, at certain ages, the child: and the child doesn't care at all
the verisimilitude of the story; what matters most to him is that the events
fulfill their appetites and their tastes.
3rd. The fantastic-realist tales, in which the environments and the
characters are from everyday life, but in it the events that occur,
with total naturalness, they belong to the world of the magical. Thus, the beings of this
magical world can be mixed with the beings that inhabit the world of the
Earth, without any problem.
THE WONDERFUL TALES
(See PROPP, W.: Morphology of the Folktale. Madrid. Fundamentos, 1971)
MAIN CHARACTERISTICS
Stories set in indeterminate or unreal space
Both the characters and the events are
fantastic, unreal or magical:
Prodigies and extraordinary situations
Giants, dwarfs, witches, merlins, wizards, animals
personified
The characters are stereotypes, without a defined personality and without
psychological development, which intervene based on the
argument; in this way, they are brave, generous, cunning,
kind, virtuous, etc. In addition, there is a series of
characters that appear to assume the functions, to the
that, now, we will refer to.
THE FUNCTIONS
(THE ELEMENTS OF THE WONDERFUL TALE)
The main ones are:
1. Initial problem (lack): hunger, ugliness, poverty,...
[Link]: agreement of the king or the prince.
3. Hero's journey: adventures.
4. Display of generosity from the hero.
5. Donation of a magical object (in reward for the previous action).
6. Struggle between the hero and the aggressor.
[Link] that the hero undergoes: they will overcome thanks to the magical object.
8. Return trip, with the success achieved.
9. Recognition of the hero.
Not all functions appear in all the stories.
(Consider that Propp notes 31 functions)
Now, those that appear follow the marked order.
The CHARACTERS that carry out the
functions correspond to these types:
Hero
Aggressor
Donor of the magical object
Auxiliar
Princess (often the final prize of the hero)
King or another ruler
False hero
MOST COMMON REASONS
IN THE FOLKTALES
TRANSFORMATIONS Beauty and the Beast
MAGICAL OBJECTS Aladdin
MAGICAL POWERS King Midas
WISHES The three wishes
TRAVELS Tom Thumb
GOODNESS/EVIL Cinderella
DEEP SLEEP The Sleeping Beauty
THE STRUCTURE OF MARVELOUS TALES
(Sometimes, the structure reduces to a mere succession of events)
0. The beginning tends to repeat itself, with indeterminate formulas regarding
space and time: Once upon a time...; There was once; In a faraway land.
The hero suffers from a deficiency or undergoes an aggression or similar.
2. Moves away from the family home
On the way, you will meet someone who will give you an object.
wonderful, or what will help you, or what will instruct you on how to
process to be able to succeed
4. Thanks to this, he will overcome the challenges that come his way: to defeat a
dragon or fierce animal, repair a wrongdoing, distance oneself from danger
5. Final triumph of the hero
THE END OF WONDERFUL TALES
•Suele ser feliz: la boda como recompensa, el perdón del enemigo, el
end of evil, the punishment of the wicked, etc.
The narrator concludes the story with a closing formula: Y
colorín, colorado...; And they lived happily ever after...; My story ends with bread and
pepper and everyone happy, etc.
Common questions
Powered by AIMarvelous tales typically feature stereotyped characters such as heroes, aggressors, magical helpers, donors of magical objects, and often a princess as the hero's reward. These characters lack detailed psychological development, yet embody roles crucial to the story's progress. The hero often exhibits virtues like bravery or cunning, while the aggressor represents obstacles. Magical helpers and donors provide essential tools or guidance. These archetypical roles allow for a focus on the narrative's progression and moral teachings, rather than character complexity, facilitating the story's transmission across cultures and generations .
Etiological tales serve a crucial role within folk literature by providing narratives that explain the origins of cultural practices, natural phenomena, or social institutions. These tales embed community beliefs and serve to rationalize aspects of the human experience and the natural world. By offering stories about 'why things are the way they are,' they fulfill a cognitive function, helping societies interpret the world and transmit cultural knowledge across generations, thus reinforcing cultural identity and continuity .
Vladimir Propp's structural functions significantly shaped the narrative of wonderful tales by providing a systematic framework to understand their structure. Propp identified functions such as the hero's initial deficiency, the call to adventure, magical assistance, trials, and ultimate triumph, which create a coherent structure typical in folklore. These functions help dissect tales into recognisable patterns that transcend cultures. Today, Propp's framework is relevant in comparative folklore studies and modern storytelling, where its insights into narrative structure help analyze and construct stories in literature and media .
The oral tradition has greatly influenced the preservation and variation of folk tales, such as Little Red Riding Hood. Oral storytelling allowed tales to evolve with cultural contexts, introducing variations in plot and moral emphasis. The story of Little Red Riding Hood exists in many versions, with notable changes from its origins in religious texts through its first written fixation by Perrault to the Grimms' adaptation. Oral tradition facilitated a dynamic transformation, enabling the story to retain relevance, adapt to audience sensibilities, and serve different pedagogical functions over time .
The classification of folk tales into types like 'wonderful tales' and 'novella' highlights narrative diversity by categorizing stories based on key elements such as setting and thematic content. 'Wonderful tales' are characterized by fantasy elements, unreal settings, and magical characters, focusing on the fantastical as a central theme. In contrast, 'novella' involves more realistic, localized settings often surrounding human experiences or historical events. This classification system, such as Stith Thompson's motif-index, allows us to better understand the thematic diversity in folklore and the cultural contexts that shape these narratives .
Storytelling was initially considered a 'popular' or 'children's' genre and was largely despised by cultured literature. However, during the Romanticism era, there was a shift where cultured literature began to study storytelling. This transformation arose because, although earlier literature often included tales within novels and comedies, they were not extensively analyzed until Romanticism, when scholars began to appreciate the narrative form's depth and cultural significance .
Anthropological interpretations of folk tales focus on the varied nature of human societies and cultural contexts, aiming to recreate the social conditions under which stories were told. They consider human nature as variable across different places, times, and cultures. In contrast, psychoanalytic interpretations, like those of Bruno Bettelheim, often use a universal model of human nature, ascribing stories to the collective unconscious with fixed meanings, such as the Oedipus complex, common across cultures. This highlights a key difference: while psychoanalytic interpretations seek core psychological truths, anthropological perspectives emphasize contextual diversity .
In medieval Spain, the coexistence of Arab and Christian cultures greatly influenced storytelling, shaping the narrative forms such as the 'apologue.' This integration led to a unique literary tradition that melded oriental influences with characteristics of Christian Europe. Texts like 'Calila and Dimna' and 'Sendebar' entered Spain through Arabic versions, contributing significantly to the development of the 'apologue,' which became a narrative form containing moral or instructive teachings, typically in the guise of allegory and personification .
Character stereotypes in wonderful tales, such as heroes, villains, and magical beings, carry significant social implications by reinforcing cultural norms and archetypes. These stereotypes simplify moral dichotomies and virtues, teaching clear behavioral ideals, but may also perpetuate biased views or simplistic characterizations. In diverse cultural contexts, such stereotypes might clash or align with local values, influencing audience perceptions of morality, identity, and cultural ideals. They can both unify through shared narratives and potentially marginalize by imposing external cultural norms .
Moral and instructive teachings are central to the structure of traditional folk tales, often designed to convey a lesson or depict social norms. Initially, these stories, collected during the Romanticism era, did not universally include morals but were a means to portray human cunning versus foolishness. Over time, especially from the period where Charles Perrault documented tales, the inclusion of explicit morals became more common. This evolution reflects a broader pedagogical intent in storytelling, aiming to instill values and critically engage the audience with moral dilemmas .