Introduction
“Fairy Tales give insight into the psychology of those who created them and those who passed them down the generations… they tell us something about the whole population living in a particular era” (Grimms’ Fairy Tales. Preface)
Folk tales are have long played a part in imparting education and moral lessons to children in every culture but the way that they do so are widely different and convey varied sentiments. In this project I will attempt to analyze folk tales as a medium of pedagogy and their cultural significance by conducting a comparison between some famous fairy tales from different cultures.
For the purposes of this project we will only be analyzing several texts relating to Germanic, Chinese and Indian cultures. …show more content…
This particular name was derived in Europe but this type of story has been prevalent in most cultures since their inception. Over the years there has been considerable dispute over what a fairy tale is. One universally agreed-upon matter is that fairy tales do not require fairies. The common understanding of fairy tales has at times associated itself with beast fables and other folktales, and scholars differ on the degree to which the presence of fairies and/or similarly mythical beings should be taken as a differentiator.
Vladimir Propp, in his Morphology of the Folktale, criticized the common distinction between "fairy tales" and "animal tales" on the grounds that many tales contained both fantastic elements and animals but it has been argued that the animals in “animal tales” are just obvious guises for human beings and therefore their ability to talk becomes less fantastical which in turn requires the distinction to be …show more content…
Much of the wording too gives this impression as it contains colloquialisms etc. In spite of all these things, the stories are universally applicable and this is one of the reasons that these stories have become so popular.
Fairy tales also provided a means of reassurance for adults and children alike,
“Their understanding of evil, for example, is based on personal fears and perceptions. Children are inevitably frightened by the idea of evil, and so are fascinated by stories which overcome this fear. They feel personally involved when evil is vanquished and good triumphs (the premise of most fairytales). They gain a type of control over a terror which seems to be lurking in the shadows, threatening them” (Dr Maria O’Dwyer)
It gives the reader a concept of Good and Evil which establishes some moralistic insights while simultaneously creating a helpful binary to stave off the fear of the
“Fairy Tales give insight into the psychology of those who created them and those who passed them down the generations… they tell us something about the whole population living in a particular era” (Grimms’ Fairy Tales. Preface)
Folk tales are have long played a part in imparting education and moral lessons to children in every culture but the way that they do so are widely different and convey varied sentiments. In this project I will attempt to analyze folk tales as a medium of pedagogy and their cultural significance by conducting a comparison between some famous fairy tales from different cultures.
For the purposes of this project we will only be analyzing several texts relating to Germanic, Chinese and Indian cultures. …show more content…
This particular name was derived in Europe but this type of story has been prevalent in most cultures since their inception. Over the years there has been considerable dispute over what a fairy tale is. One universally agreed-upon matter is that fairy tales do not require fairies. The common understanding of fairy tales has at times associated itself with beast fables and other folktales, and scholars differ on the degree to which the presence of fairies and/or similarly mythical beings should be taken as a differentiator.
Vladimir Propp, in his Morphology of the Folktale, criticized the common distinction between "fairy tales" and "animal tales" on the grounds that many tales contained both fantastic elements and animals but it has been argued that the animals in “animal tales” are just obvious guises for human beings and therefore their ability to talk becomes less fantastical which in turn requires the distinction to be …show more content…
Much of the wording too gives this impression as it contains colloquialisms etc. In spite of all these things, the stories are universally applicable and this is one of the reasons that these stories have become so popular.
Fairy tales also provided a means of reassurance for adults and children alike,
“Their understanding of evil, for example, is based on personal fears and perceptions. Children are inevitably frightened by the idea of evil, and so are fascinated by stories which overcome this fear. They feel personally involved when evil is vanquished and good triumphs (the premise of most fairytales). They gain a type of control over a terror which seems to be lurking in the shadows, threatening them” (Dr Maria O’Dwyer)
It gives the reader a concept of Good and Evil which establishes some moralistic insights while simultaneously creating a helpful binary to stave off the fear of the