The tale reaches the reader in different ways. A storyteller can come up with a plot, tell someone, and his listener can add something and pass it on to the next - and so on. The result is a folk tale, when it is already difficult to establish who began to tell it. A literary tale has a different fate. Its author is almost always known, the text is constant, and the one who reads it does not make any changes.
What is a fairy tale?
The word "fairy tale" appeared in Russian in the seventeenth century. For four centuries, the meaning of the term has changed, and now it denotes a literary work of an epic nature. The plot of this work is focused on fiction. Elements of real life may be present in it, sometimes there are even many of them, but events happen to the heroes that cannot be in reality. It is customary to distinguish between folk and literary tales.
How does a literary tale differ from a folk tale?
The most basic difference is the distribution paths. Of course, now readers also find folk tales most often in books. But before it ends up on paper, a folk tale goes a long way. It is retold by word of mouth, sometimes it lasts for many centuries. Then a collector of folklore is found, who records and processes it.
A literary tale has a completely different fate. It, of course, can be associated with some kind of folklore plot, but the writer composes and writes it down, and it reaches the readers immediately in the form of a book. The folk tale appeared earlier than the literary one. One of its functions was the upbringing of the younger generation, therefore, a didactic element is, as a rule, pronounced in a folk tale. This is also typical of a literary tale. The expression "A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it, a lesson for good fellows" quite accurately defines one of the main purposes of this genre.
Genres of literary tale
Like any work of authorship, a literary tale can have one of three basic structures. Distinguish between prosaic, poetic and dramatic constructions. A prominent representative of a prosaic literary tale was, for example, G.-H. Andersen. V. F. Odoevsky, and A. Lindgren, as well as many other excellent authors of books for children and adults.
Excellent examples of poetic tales were left by A. S. Pushkin. An example of a dramatic fairy tale is "Twelve Months" by S. Ya. Marshak. At the same time, the authors of literary tales do not always take folklore plots as a basis. For example, Astrid Lindgren or Tove Jansson's plots are original and have no analogues in folk art, while Charles Perrault's "Tales of Mother Goose" is based on folk plots.
The plots of the author's fairy tales can be divided into three groups: epic, lyrical and dramatic. There are cases when the author, having written a literary tale, does not stop there, develops his idea and creates an authorized epic.
