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Fable

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For other uses of the term or its plural, see Fable (disambiguation).

In its strict sense a fable is a short story or folk tale featuring animals, plants or forces of nature that are given human qualities. A fable's purpose is to impart a moral lesson, which may be expressed explicitly at the end as a maxim. "Fable" comes from Latin fabula (meaning 'conversation', 'narrative', 'tale') and shares a root with faber, "maker, artificer." Thus, though a fable may be conversational in tone, the understanding from the outset is that it is an invention, a fiction. A fable may be set in verse, though it is usually prose. In its pejorative sense, a fable is a deliberately invented or falsified account. The word "fabulous" strictly means "pertaining to fables," although in recent decades its metaphorical meanings have been taken to be literal meanings, i.e. "legendary," "mythical," "exaggerated," "incredible." An author of fables is called a fabulist.

The fable is one of the most enduring forms of folk literature, spread abroad, modern researchers agree[1] more by literary anthologies than by oral transmission,

Fables can be found in the literature of almost every country. Fables that originated in India were carried into Persia and from there spread into Greece and the Western world from the fourth century BCE. In the West, nevertheless, the varying corpus denoted Aesopica or "Aesop's Fables" include most of the best-known fables, which are attributed to the essentially legendary Aesop, supposed to have been a Greek slave. When Babrius set down fables from the Aesopica in verse for a Hellenistic prince "Alexander", he expressly stated at the head of Book II, that this type of "myth" that Aesop introduced to the "sons of the Hellenes" was an invention of "Syrians" from the time of "Ninos" (personifying Nineveh for Greeks) and Belos ("ruler")[2]. Several parallels in animal fables in Sumerian and Akkadian fables are among those that E. Ebeling introduced to modern Western readers;[3]; there are comparable fables of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt[4], and in Hebrew fables such as the "king of trees" in Book of Judges 9 or "the thistle and the cedar tree" in II Kings 14:9.[5] Many others are familiar such as “The Crow and the Pitcher,” “The Hare and the Tortoise,” or “The Lion and the Mouse.”

A fable often, but not necessarily, makes metaphorical use of an animal as its central character. Medieval French fabliaux might feature Reynard the fox, a trickster figure, and offer a subtext that was mildly subversive of the feudal order of society. A familiar theme in Slavic fables is an encounter between a wily peasant and the Devil. But the device of personification may be extended to anything inanimate, such as trees, flowers, stones, streams and winds.

Whether handed down from generation to generation as oral literature or constructed by a literary tale-teller, the purpose of a fable is to teach a particular lesson, value or to give sage advice. They also provide us with the opportunity to laugh at our foolishness and cry and comfort each other when faced with tragedy. They differ from parables and allegories which usually feature humans. They also differ from myths and legends which explain a particular natural phenomena such as seasons or why the sun rises in the east.

Fables are characterized by a lesson, the type of characters, its length which is generally short and the type of writing, which is mainly action and dialogue as opposed to description. But most importantly, the fable is universal. For that reason, it’s important to teach fables. Not only do fables allow us to connect with other cultures but ultimately they reinforce what makes us human.

Finally, the fable also serves as a springboard to other forms of writing. The lesson becomes the theme in a short story or novel; how the lesson is taught becomes the plot in longer stories. Characters can be developed to create voice, dialogue and point of view.

There are many modern fables. Felix Salten's Bambi is a Bildungsroman — a story of a protagonist's coming-of-age — cast in the figure of a fable. The Lion King is a fable.

History

Fables have been told for a long time. One of the earliest notable fabulists was Aesop, a slave who lived in ancient Greece during the 6th century BC. Although no solid evidence exists proving Aesop was a real person, or where he was born, some consider him as the father of the genre. Hundreds of fables have been attributed to him, though many have been told by others, at an earlier or later time.

Hundreds of fables were also composed in ancient India during the first millenium BC, often as stories within frame stories. These included the Hitopadesha, Vikram and The Vampire, Vishnu Sarma's Fables of Bidpai, and Syntipas' Seven Wise Masters, which were collections of fables that were later influential throughout the Old World. Earlier Indian epics such as Vyasa's Mahabharata and Valmiki's Ramayana also contained fables within the main story, often as side stories or back-story.

Fables had a further long tradition through the Middle Ages, and became part of European literature. During the 17th century, the French fabulist Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) saw the soul of the fable in the moral — a rule of behavior. Starting with the Aesopian pattern, La Fontaine set out to satirize the court, the church, the rising bourgeoisie, indeed the entire human scene of his time. La Fontaine's model was subsequently emulated by Poland's Ignacy Krasicki (1735-1801) and Russia's Ivan Krylov (1769-1844).

In modern times, the fable has been trivialized in children's books. Yet it has also been fully adapted to modern literature. For instance, James Thurber used the ancient style in his book, Fables for Our Time; and in a book, The Beast in me, unmasked by fables. George Orwell's Animal Farm satirizes Stalinist Communism in particular, and totalitarianism in general, by using the animal story.

Epicharmus of Kos and Phormis are reported as having been among the first to invent comic fables.[6]

Notable fabulists

Some modern fabulists

Notable fables

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Enzyklopädie des Märchens (1977), see "Fabel", "Äsopica" etc.
  2. ^ Burkert 1992:121
  3. ^ Ebeling, Die Babylonishe Fabel und ihre Bedeutung für die Literaturgeschichte (1931).
  4. ^ E. Brunner-Traut, Altägyptische Tiergeschichte und Fabel (1970)
  5. ^ Both noted by Walter Burkert, The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Early Archaic Greek Culture (1992), p 121 note 4.
  6. ^ P.W. Buckham, p. 245

References

  • Philip Wentworth Buckham, Theatre of the Greeks, 1827.
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