Fable
Fables are short, fictional stories featuring animals or inanimate objects as protagonists, often designed to convey moral lessons through allegorical narratives. This genre has a rich oral tradition, believed to date back to ancient Greece in the sixth century BCE with Aesop, who is known for his ability to engage audiences through his storytelling despite his physical deformities. Fables typically embody straightforward virtues such as common sense and moderation, rather than lofty ethical ideals. Throughout history, fables have served not only as entertainment but also as educational tools, particularly for newly literate populations, often illustrated to enhance their appeal.
The genre evolved over time, with notable contributions from various authors, including Jean de La Fontaine and John Gay, who adapted and expanded on earlier fables. Fables also played a role in societal critique, particularly during the Enlightenment, where they became vehicles for instilling societal values and reflecting on class dynamics. In modern times, fables have been adapted into various artistic forms, including animated short films, and continue to influence narrative arts by imparting lessons relevant to contemporary issues. Overall, fables remain a significant cultural artifact that encapsulate universal themes and moral insights.
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Fable
Fables are concise, fictitious narratives in which animals and inanimate objects are protagonists. The genre, which has a long oral tradition, takes the form of short allegorical tales where multiple meanings are simultaneously expressed to convey a moral. Fables rarely promote lofty ethical standards, but rather illustrate plain virtues of common sense, moderation, and Everyman wisdom.
Background
The fable is one of the earliest forms in Western literature, traced to the sixth century BCE with Aesop in Greece. Said to have been a physically deformed slave on the Greek island of Samos in the Aegean Sea, Aesop engaged audiences who may have first laughed at his grotesque appearance but remembered his brilliant storytelling. Fables or cautionary tales attributed to Aesop have animal protagonists in order to inculcate moral interpretations that tap the universal collective consciousness.
A common theme of fables is the saving of one’s skin while remaining on good terms with those in power. Beast epics, such as “Reynard the Fox,” were more lengthy fables that were first developed during the Middle Ages. These were cycle tales that contained multiple morals of human behavior: a modern example of a beast epic would be George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Fables became a popular device for teaching the newly literate. They were often generously illustrated with woodcut engravings by artists such as Domenico Vivaldi and Ernst Voullieme.
Giovanni Francesco Straparola (1480–1557) was a popular author in Venice, Italy, the first center in Europe where literate artisans flourished. Straparola became known as the father of literary fairy tales in Europe with Le piacevoli notti (1550–53), employing a frame-story format similar to that used in Boccaccio’s TheDecameron. It contained seventy-five fantastic and bawdy stories shared by female characters congregated in Murano, Italy, and essentially became an encyclopedia of contemporary literary fable forms.
European writers transformed the simple fables of oral tradition into a literary genre: French poet Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) was known for collecting from earlier fabulists. His Fables choisies, mises en vers (1668–94; Fables Written in Verse, 1735—commonly known as The Fables) contained stories culled from the Aesopic and East Asian traditions. British poet and dramatist John Gay (1685–1732) published original fables in his two volume work Fables (1727, 1738) that reflected his disappointments in not achieving upward social mobility. Sarah Fielding (1710–68), the younger sister of novelist Henry Fielding (1707–54), wrote The Governess, or, The Little Female Academy (1749) that is considered to be the first novel for adolescent girls in which literary exempla were embedded. Within the frame story, the students in a small school for girls are instructed to read fables and stories to each other and to discuss their morals.
Impact
Few in the modern world know the extensive variety of fables and the social function they once served. From the Enlightenment era on, fables became texts for inculcating societal values to young people. Literary fables also provided a symbolic critique of aristocratic hierarchy from a female perspective when scorned by enlightened literary society in favor of novels, becoming a subgenre of didactic fiction.
Over time, the fable evolved in form and intent. James Thurber (1894–1961) employed the fable to chide twentieth-century political dictators and the culture of war in The Last Flower: A Parable in Pictures (1939). In the 1920s, illustrated fables were first transposed to film when American cartoonist Paul Terry (1887–1971) and his Fables Studios, Inc. created a series of enormously popular animated short films based on Aesop’s stories. Fables and the educational principle that guides them have a long cultural history and continue to inform the narrative arts.
Bibliography
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De Molina, Cristobal, et al. Account of the Fables and Rites of the Incas. Austin: U of Texas P, 2011. Print.
De Weever, Jacqueline. Aesop and the Imprint of Medieval Thought: A Study of Six Fables as Translated at the End of the Middle Ages. Jefferson: McFarland, 2011. Print.
Hoberman, Mary Ann. Very Short Fables to Read Together. New York: Little, 2010. Print.
Knapman, Timothy, and Hanna Firmin. Fables from Africa. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2014. Print.
La Fontaine, Jean de, and C. J. Betts and Gustave Dore. Selected Fables. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2014. Print.
Rourke, Lee. A Brief History of Fables: From Aesop to Flash Fiction. London: Hesparus, 2011. Print.
Rustad, Martha E. H. Learning about Folktales, Fables, and Fairy Tales. North Mankato: Capstone, 2014. Print.
Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. Encyclopedia of the Fable. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1998. Print.