What is a fairy tale, and what is its difference from other literary genres

When we were absolutely crumbs, my mother or grandmother told us about the chicken-puff and kolobok. When we grew up a little, we were read from picture books. Then we watched cartoons about Snow White and the seven gnomes, Cinderella or Vasilisa the Wise. Then it was time to go, and we swallowed "1001 night" or "Panchatantra", watched "Shrek", until they ripened to such multifaceted works as "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka". And all this was one and the same literary artistic kind of narrative. So, what is a fairy tale?

Naturally, this is a narrative about events that were not really there. But from the genre of fiction, this genre is distinguished by the fact that it does not pretend to be true. He gives us in advance certain hints that the matter is not in truthful information, but in the narrative and morals itself ("In a certain kingdom", "For the king of the Pea"). This is different from the myth, which tells about cosmogony, theogony and heroic deeds (like Hercules). Epics, sagas and legends, despite their fantastic plot, talking animals and the like, tell the story of the people who created them. In fact, what is a fairy tale, how not the product of the same people?

In addition to the fact that in this literary genre immediately points to historical unreliability of events, there is one more rigorous rule: good wins, and evil suffers a complete fiasco. If the story ends badly - it's already different, although similar genres. However, their goal is to narrate the hero's heroic deeds (bylina, epic) or moral presentation (for example, a fable about the wolf and lamb). Another very characteristic feature of this genre is that the storyline is straightforward. The narrative is easy, a little naive, it concerns only the protagonist. To understand what a fairy tale is, help one-type characters, which are either uniquely bad, or absolutely good. There is no philosophical reflection, psychological throwing, and purifying catharsis in this literature.

Philologists believe that the first stories in the history of mankind were stories about animals. Even when people found their livelihood a hunt, from generation to generation the eldest passed on to the younger the experience of the habits of animals. The fox is always cunning, the dog is faithful, but the bear is stupid, while the lion is brave and fearless. Then came the folklore fantastic stories, where in literary form behind the invented plot are visible real morals and customs of the people. Nevertheless, the folk tale preserves the anonymity of the author, it has been polished for centuries and supplemented with various details and jokes. People come up with certain characters who "wander" from one fantastic story to another: a dragon of three heads, Baba Yaga, Koschey the Immortal.

Since the XVII century, a new genre - a literary tale. Its novelty consisted in the fact that, in addition to the author's bright individual style, such narrations could also have been poetic, rhymed (for example, Pushkin's fairy tales). The treasury of world literature was adorned with the stories of Charles Perrault, the brothers Grimm, Andersen, Hauf and others. The author's work can be attached to a specific place and time (the Black Forest at Grimm, Dikanka at Gogol), but no one even thinks of a fairy tale as a description of reliable events. She carries away, hypnotizes with her unthinkably beautiful plot.

After all, what is a fairy tale, and why are we, growing up, retelling these simple stories to our children? In them, despite seeming primitiveness, the basic knowledge of the world, moral imperatives, bases of ethics are laid. So the child begins to know the universe and the society in which he is to live. It is not without reason that it says: "A fairy tale is a lie, but a hint in it, a lesson to good fellows." By the way, until the XIX century, this term was directly opposite to modern meaning. They indicated an accurate list and a reliable description of something. A genre that tells of a frog princess or kikimoras living in the forest was called a fable or a kite.