Traditional literature

1. Traditional Literature

Olga V. Malova
Associate Professor, PhD (Pedagogical Studies)
Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia
2017

2. Lecture #6 Traditional Literature

I. Our traditional literary heritage.
II. Values of TL for children.
III. Types of TL:
• Folktales.
• Fables.
• Myths.
• Legends.

3. Lecture #6 Traditional Literature

I. Our traditional literary heritage.
The quest of traditional literary heritage takes us to times before
recorded history and to all parts of the world:
• tales of religious significance allowed ancient people to speculate
about their beginnings,
• mythical heroes and heroines from all cultures overcame
supernatural adversaries/enemies.
OV: Do TrTs from different countries have the common features?
Similarities in the types of tales and in the `narrative motifs and
content of traditional stories from peoples throughout the world
constitute solid evidence that TLs are both universal and ancient.

4. Lecture #6 Traditional Literature

I. Our traditional literary heritage.
Every social class has cultivated the art of storytelling, which reflects the culture,
natural environment and social contacts of the storyteller and the audience.
For example:
• storytellers who earned their livings in medieval European castles related great
deeds of nobility.
• commoners in medieval Europe lived lives quite different from those of the
nobility, and the TTs of the commoners differed accordingly. A common theme
of their folktales is
overcoming
social
inequality to attain a
better way of life.

5. Lecture #6 Traditional Literature

I. Our traditional literary heritage.
Historical note:
• In early times TL didn’t belong to children (it seemed to be immoral). Only
in the 18th century Charles Perrault and Brothers Grimm brought a new
respect to TTs and ensured their availability for all: children and adults.
• Today folk literature is considered an important part of early child’s
cultural heritage. It is difficult to imagine the early childhood and
elementary school year without “The Little Red Riding Hood” and “The
Three Bears”.
TL contains something that appeals to all interests: humorous stories,
magical stories and adventure stories.

6. Lecture #6 Traditional Literature

II. Values of TL for children.
1. Understanding the world:
TrTs help children better understand
the nonscientific cultural traditions of early
humanity.
For example: Greek and Roman myths tell how early Europeans
explained the mysteries of creation, human nature and natural
phenomena through the powers of gods, giants and demons. These
myths were taken so serious that religions grew up around them.
TrTs also fill readers with admiration for the people who developed
answers for unanswerable questions.

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II. Values of TL for children.
1. Understanding the world:
1) TrTs show the interrelatedness of various types of stories and ‘narrative motifs.
• For example: the story of “Cinderella”. There are more than a hundred versions of it worldwide.
While these stories have different characters, settings and types of enchantment, their underlying
themes are the same.
2) Children learn about cultural diffusion as they observe how different versions of a tale are
dispersed.
• For example: almost every country has its traditional trickster, such as the fox in Palestine, or its
stupid, easy fooled creature, such as the bear in Lapland or the giraffe in west Africa.
OV: Why are there so many common features
between TL?
The similarities among tales indicate movement of
people through migration and conquest, and emphasize
that humans throughout the world have had similar needs
and problems.

8. Lecture #6 Traditional Literature

II. Values of TL for children.
1. Understanding the world:
3) TrTs help children develop an appreciation for the culture and art of
different countries.
4) They provide factual information about different countries:
information about geography, government, family patterns, food,
celebrations, likes and dislikes.
• For example: contrasts in weather and geography are evident when
children compare the warm lands of Arabian folktales with the icy
setting of Norse mythology.

9. Lecture #6 Traditional Literature

II. Values of TL for children.
1. Understanding the world:
5) TrTs familiarize children with the many languages and
dialects of cultures around the world.
For example:
• the names from different countries fascinate children. They enjoy hearing about
Russian Maria Morevna the beautiful Tsarevna; Vietnamese Tam – the girl who lived in
the land of Small Dragon.
Howard Pyle’s “The Story of King Arthur and His
Knights” contains dialogue suggesting early English:
“Sir Knight, I demand of thee why thou didst suite that
shield. Now let me tell thee, because of thy boldness, I
shall take away from thee thine own shield, and shall
hang it upon yonder appletree, where thou beholdest all
those other shields to be habging.”

10. Lecture #6 Traditional Literature

II. Values of TL for children.
1. Understanding the world:
6) TrTs provide marvelous stimulation for creative drama, writing and other forms of artistic
expression.
7) TrTs encourage children to realize that people from all over the world have inherent goodness,
mercy, courage and industry.
2. Identifying with Universal Human Struggles.
Nothing is so enriching as TL:
• TrTs allow children to learn about human progress and possible solutions to problems;
• Because tales state problems briefly, children can understand them;
• Tales subtly convey the advantages of moral behavior.
TrTs present characters both good and bad. Children empathize with honorable
characters and their struggles, learning that while they may experience difficulty or rejection, they
too will be given help and guidance when needed.

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3. Pleasure.
1)TrL is extremely popular with children, in particular folktales. Although folktales may appeal
primarily to young children, children of various ages and interests find them enjoyable.
For example:
• Animal tales, such as “The Three Little Pigs” and “The Three Bears” are for young children
and fairy-tale, such as “Beauty and the Beast” is for upper-elementary school children.
2) The characteristics of folktales correspond with the characteristics
Jean Piaget ascribed to children:
• Children believe that objects , actions, thoughts and words can exercise
magical influence over events in their own lives →
folktales are filled with such events as spells
that turn humans into animals and vice versa.

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3. Pleasure.
• Children believe that inanimate objects and animals have
consciousness much like that of humans →
the objects and animals in folktales that speak or act like people are
consistent with children’s beliefs.
• Young children believe in punishment for wrong doing and reward
for good behavior → folktales satisfy this sense of justice.
• The relationship between heroes and heroines and their
environments is much the same as the relationship between
children and their own environment →
children are the center of their universe and heroes and heroines – of
their folktale world: when Sleeping Beauty sleeps for a hundred
years, so does the whole castle.

13. Lecture #6 Traditional Literature

III. Types of TL
Traditional tales (TrTs) have been handed down from generation to
generation by word of mouth. In contrast to a modern story, a TTs has
no identifiable author. Instead, storytellers tell what they have
received from previous tellers of tales.
FOLKTALES
Definition: Folktales are “prose narratives which are regarded as
fiction. They are not considered as dogma or history, they may or
may not have happened, and they are not taken seriously.”
(According to Bascom William (“The Forms of Folklore: Prose
Narratives. JOURNALM OF AMERICAN FOLKLORE 78
(January/March, 1956).
Because the tales are set in any time or place, they seem almost timeless
and placeless. They usually tell the adventures of animal or human
characters.

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III. Types of TL
Categories of folktales
1) Cumulative tales.
Tales that sequentially repeat actions, characters or speeches until a climax is
reached. Their structure allows children to join in as each new happenings
occurs.
Example: a runaway food is a popular subject for cumulative tales.
“Gingerbread Boy” (German)
“The Pancake” (Norway)
“Johnny Cake” (England)
“The Bun” (Russia)

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III. Types of TL
Categories of folktales
2) Humorous tales.
Folktales allow people to laugh at themselves as well
as others.
Example: in the Russian tale “The Peasant’s Pea Pitch (заплата)” the
humor results from absurd situations and the stupidity of the characters.
3) Beast tales.
They are among the most universal folktales being found in all cultures.
Example: the coyote is a popular animal in Native American tales, while
the fox and the wolf are found in many European tales. Beasts in
folktales often talk and act quite like people (“The Bremen Town
Musicians”).

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III. Types of TL
Categories of folktales
3) Magic and wonder tales.
They contain some elements of magic, which can be good or bad.
Example: “Cinderella”, “Beauty and the Beast”.
4) Pourquoi tales or “why” tales.
They answer a question or explain how animals, plants, humans were created and why
they have certain characteristics.
Example: “Why Siberian Birds Migrate in Winter” by Kathleen Arnott in the book
“Animal Folktales Around the World”, NY, Walck, 1970.
5) Realistic tales.
Only few tales have realistic plots and involve people who could have existed.
Example: “Dick Whittington” tells about a boy who comes to London looking for
streets paved with gold. He doesn’t find golden streets, but he does find work with an
honest merchant and eventually wins his fortune.
Some versions of this story suggest that at least parts of it are true. Dick Whittington
was a lord mayor of London.

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III. Types of TL
Characteristics of folktales
1) Plot.
• Conflicts and actions are common in folktales. As tales belong to
the oral tradition listeners are brought quickly into the action
(almost within the first few sentences).
• Conflict between characters representing good and characters
representing evil is typical.
2) Setting.
• It includes time and space.
• The time in folktales is always the far-distant past, usually introduced by some version
of “once upon a time”. The first line of a folktale usually immediately places listeners
into a time when anything might happen.
Example: a Russian tale “The Firebird” begins “Long ago, in a distant kingdom, in a
distant land, lived Tzar Vyslar Andronovich.”
A French tale may be placed “on a day of days in the time of our fathers.”

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III. Types of TL
Characteristics of folktales
3) Characterization.
• Folktale characters are less completely developed than are
characters in other types of stories. Oral storytellers lacked the
time to develop fully rounded characters →so, characters are symbolic and flat.
• Characters easily typed as bad are accompanied by those who are always good.
Children identify them easily, and this may account for the popularity of folktales
with young children.
• Folktales usually establish the main characters’ natures early on as Charles Perrault
does in the first paragraph of “Cinderella”:
“There was once upon a time a gentleman who married for his second wife the proudest
and most haughty (высокомерная) woman that ever was known. She had been a
widow, and had by her former husband two daughters of her own humor, who were
exactly like her in all things. He had also by a former wife a young daughter, but of
an unparalleled goodness and sweetness of temper, which she took from her mother,
who was the best creature in the world…”

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III. Types of TL
Characteristics of folktales
4) Theme.
Folktales contain universal truths and reflect the values of the times and societies in which they
originated. The characters, their actions and their rewards develop themes related to moral and
material achievement: good overcomes evil; justice triumphs; diligence (усердие) and hard
work bring rewards.
5) Style.
Charles Perrault believed “that the best stories are those that imitate both, the style and the
simplicity of children’s verses” (Hearn, Michael Patrick. Preface to “Histories or Tales of Past
Times” by Charles Perrault. NY, Garland, 1977).
This style permits few distracting details or unnecessary descriptions. Simplicity is especially
apparent in the thoughts and dialogues of characters in folktales: they think and talk like
people. And very often the language of folktales may be enriched with simple rhymes and
verses.
Example: “Jack and the Beanstalk”, the giant chants:
Fee, fi-fo-fum,
I smell the blood of an Englishman,
Be he alive or be he dead,
I’ll have his bones to grind (разнообразить) my bread”.

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III. Types of TL
Motives of folktales
1) Supernatural beings.
They are usually either adversaries (enemies) or helpers. The
wicked supernatural beings, such as ogres [`əugə] and witches,
may find heroines or heroes, entice them into their cottages or
castles and make preparations to feast upon them.
Supernatural helpers support many heroines and heroes in their
quests.
Example: 7 dwarfs help Snow White in her battle against her evil
stepmother.

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III. Types of TL
Motives of folktales
2) Extraordinary animals.
They are popular characters in the folktales of all cultures.
Example: in the English and French version of “Little Red Riding
Hood” the Wolf plays the role of ogre.
Some extraordinary animals are loyal companions and helpers.
Example: The cat in the French version of “Puss in Boots”
outwits (перехитрить) an ogre and provides riches for his
human master.

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III. Types of TL
Motives of folktales
3) Magical objects, powers and transformations.
Folktale characters often obtain magical objects, lose them or have them
stolen and eventually recover (обретать) them.
Magical spells and transformations are common in folktales around the
world.
Example: the spell of a fairy godmother turns
a pumpkin into a golden coach, and the spell
of a witch puts a princess to sleep for a hundred years.
One of the most common transformation motifs
is the transformation of a prince into
an animal (“The Frog Prince”) or
a beastlike monster (“Beauty and the Beast”).

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III. Types of TL
FABLES
Definition
Fables are brief tales in which animal characters that talk
and act like humans indicate a moral lesson or
satirize human conduct (behavior).
Historical note
Legends credits the origins of the fables in western culture to a Greek slave
named Aesop, who lived in the sixth century B.C.
Fables are found worldwide; the traditional literature of China and India, for
example, contain fables similar to Aesop’s.

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III. Types of TL
FABLES
Characteristics of fables.
• They are fiction in the sense that they did not really
happen;
• They are meant to entertain;
• They are poetic, with double or allegoric significance;
• They are moral tales, usually with animal characters;
• Fables are short and they usually have not more than 2 or 3 characters. These
characters perform simple, straightforward actions that result in a single
climax.
Example: “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse”, “The Tortoise and the
Hair”.

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III. Types of TL
MYTHS
Definition: Myths are “prose narratives which, in the society in which they are told,
are considered to be truthful accounts of what happened in the remote past. They
are accepted on faith; they are taught to be believed and they can be cited as
authority in answer to ignorance, doubt or disbelief. Myths are embodiment
(воплощение) of dogma; they are usually sacred and they are often associated
with theology and ritual.” (According to Bascom William (“The Forms of
Folklore: Prose Narratives. JOURNALM OF AMERICAN FOLKLORE 78
(January/March, 1965).
• Every ancient culture made up stories and answered questions about the creation
of the earth, the origins of people and the reasons for natural phenomena. The
Greeks called these explanations “mythos” – which means tales or stories.
• Today people sometimes use the word “myth” to describe any story they consider
to be untrue.

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III. Types of TL
MYTHS
The functions of myths are:
• A mystical one that allows people to experience the awe [ͻ:] (страх, трепет,
благоговение) of the universe;
• A cosmological one that shows the shape and mystery of the universe;
• A sociological one that supports and validates a certain social order;
• A pedagogical one that teaches people how to live (Joseph Campbell. “The
Power of Myth”. NY: Doubleday, 1988).
The main characters in myths may be animals, deities (боги) or humans.
The actions take place in an earlier world or another world, such as the
underworld or the sky.

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III. Types of TL
MYTHS
Myths are valuable for children, because:
• They provide children with knowledge about ʹancestral
cultures and allow children to look at other cultures from
the inside out;
• Myths are models to belief; they are serious statements about existence, they
provide a framework for understanding the things that other people did or
thought;
• They are tools for understanding and expanding imagination;
• They provide means of introducing children to literary allusions (ссылка,
упоминание).
Historical note: probably, the best known myths in Western culture originated in
ancient Greece. When the Romans conquered Greece, they adopted many Greek
myths, applying them to their own equivalent deities.
Example: “Theseus and the Minotaur”

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III. Types of TL
LEGENDS
Definition: legends are “prose narratives which, like myths, are regarded as true
by the narrator and his audience, but they are set in a period considered less
remote, when the world was much as it is today. Legends are more often
ʹsecular (eternal) and sacred and their principal characters are human”
(According to Bascom William (“The Forms of Folklore: Prose Narratives.
JOURNALM OF AMERICAN FOLKLORE 78 (January/March, 1965).
Values of legends for children
They help children understand the conditions of times that created a need for
brave and honorable men and women. These tales of adventure stress the
noblest actions of humans.

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III. Types of TL
LEGENDS
Difficulty: The line between legends and myths is
often vague (unclear).
Famous, is it possible to say, legendary figures in English culture: King
Arthur and Robin Hood, the hero of Sherwood Forest.
• We consider the tales of King Arthur to be legends
rather than myths because 1) they are stories primarily
about humans rather than supernatural beings and
because 2) historical tradition maintains that King
Arthur actually existed.

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I. Our traditional literary heritage.
II. Values of TL for children.
III. Types of TL:
•Folktales.
•Fables.
•Myths.
•Legends.