Fable  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

(Difference between revisions)
Jump to: navigation, search
Revision as of 17:38, 18 June 2008
Jahsonic (Talk | contribs)

← Previous diff		 Current revision
Jahsonic (Talk | contribs)

Line 1: Line 1:
 +{| class="toccolours" style="float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; background:#c6dbf7; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="5"
 +| style="text-align: left;" |
 +“Count not your chickens before they be hatched,” is a well-known proverb in English, and most people, if asked what was its origin, would probably appeal to La Fontaine’s delightful [[fable]], _[[La Laitière et le Pot au Lait]]_. We all know Perrette, lightly stepping along from her village to the town, carrying the milk-pail on her head, and in her day-dreams selling her milk for a good sum, then buying a hundred eggs, then selling the chickens, then buying a pig, fattening it, selling it again, and buying a cow with a calf. The calf frolics about, and kicks up his legs--so does Perrette, and, alas! the pail falls down, the milk is spilt, her riches gone, and she only hopes when she comes home that she may escape a flogging from her husband. Did La Fontaine invent this fable? or did he merely follow the example of [[Sokrates]], who, as we know from the [[Phædon]], occupied himself in prison, during the last days of his life, with turning into verse some of the fables, or, as he calls them, the myths of [[Æsop]]."
 +
 +-- "[[Chips_from_a_German_Workshop#III._ON_THE_MIGRATION_OF_FABLES.|On the Migration of Fables]]" (1870) by Max Müller <hr>
 +"[[It is in my nature to sting you]]"
 +<hr>
 +"But the most celebrated [[fable]] of ancient Rome is the work of [[Petronius|Petronius Arbiter]], perhaps the most remarkable fiction which has dishonoured the literary history of any nation. It is the only fable of that period now extant, but is a strong proof of the monstrous corruption of the times in which such a production could be tolerated, though, no doubt, writings of bad moral tendency might be circulated before the invention of printing, without arguing the depravity they would have evinced, if presented to the world subsequent to that period."--''[[History of Fiction (John Colin Dunlop)|History of Fiction]]'' (1814) by John Colin Dunlop
 +|}
 +[[Image:La_fable_des_trois_souhaits_by_Wiertz.jpg|thumb|200px|right|''[[La Fable des trois souhaits — Insatiabilité humaine]]'' by [[Antoine Wiertz]], see ''[[The Ridiculous Wishes ]]'']]
{{Template}} {{Template}}
-A '''fable''' is a brief, [[succinct]] [[story]], in prose or verse, that features [[animal]]s, [[plant]]s, [[inanimate|inanimate objects]], or [[nature|forces of nature]] which are [[anthropomorphized]] (given [[human]] qualities), and that illustrates a [[moral]] lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be expressed [[explicit]]ly in a [[pithy]] [[maxim (saying)|maxim]]. +A '''fable''' is a brief, [[succinct]] [[story]], in prose or verse, that features [[animal]]s, [[plant]]s, [[inanimate|inanimate objects]], or [[nature|forces of nature]] which are [[anthropomorphized]] (given [[human]] qualities), and that illustrates a [[moral lesson]] (a "moral"), which may at the end be expressed [[explicit]]ly in a [[pithy]] [[maxim (saying)|maxim]].
 + 
 +A fable differs from a '''[[parable]]''' in that the latter ''excludes'' animals, plants, [[inanimate object]]s, and forces of nature as actors that assume speech and other powers of mankind.
 + 
 +Fables central to this wiki are "[[The Scorpion and the Frog]]" and "[[The Belly and the Members]]."
 +==History==
 + 
 +The fable is one of the most enduring forms of [[folk tales|folk literature]], spread abroad, modern researchers agree, less by literary anthologies than by oral transmission. Fables can be found in the literature of almost every country.
 + 
 +Several parallel [[animal fable]]s in [[Sumerian]] and [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] are among those that [[Erich Ebeling]] introduced to modern Western readers; there are comparable fables from Egypt's [[Middle Kingdom]], and Hebrew fables such as the "king of trees" in [[Book of Judges]] 9 and "the thistle and the cedar tree" in ''[[II Kings]]'' 14:9.
 + 
 +The varying corpus denoted ''Aesopica'' or ''[[Aesop's Fables]]'' includes most of the best-known western fables, which are attributed to the [[legendary]] [[Aesop]], supposed to have been a slave in [[ancient Greece]] around [[550 BC]]. 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 had introduced to the "sons of the Hellenes" had been an invention of "Syrians" from the time of "[[Ninos]]" (personifying [[Nineveh]] to Greeks) and [[Belos]] ("ruler"). [[Epicharmus of Kos]] and Phormis are reported as having been among the first to invent comic fables. Many familiar fables of Aesop include “The Crow and the Pitcher,” “The Hare and the Tortoise,” and “The Lion and the Mouse.”
 + 
 +Hundreds of fables were composed in [[History of India|ancient India]] during the [[1st millennium BC|first millennium BC]], often as [[Story within a story|stories within]] [[frame story|frame stories]]. These included [[Vishnu Sarma]]'s ''[[Panchatantra]]'', the ''[[Hitopadesha]]'', ''[[Baital Pachisi|Vikram and The Vampire]]'', and [[Syntipas]]' ''[[Seven Wise Masters]]'', which were collections of fables that were later influential throughout the [[Old World]]. Ben E. Perry has argued that some of the ''[[Jataka tales]]'' and some of the fables in ''Panchatantra'' may have been influenced by similar [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Near East]]ern ones. Earlier [[Indian epic poetry|Indian epics]] such as [[Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa|Vyasa's]] ''[[Mahabharata]]'' and [[Valmiki]]'s ''[[Ramayana]]'' also contained fables within the main story, often as [[side story|side stories]] or [[back-story]]. The most famous fables from the [[Middle East]] were the ''[[One Thousand and One Nights]]'', also known as the ''Arabian Nights''.
 + 
 +Fables had a further long tradition through the [[Middle Ages]], and became part of European high literature. During the 17th century, the [[France|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), [[Spain]]'s [[Félix María de Samaniego]] (1745-1801) and [[Tomás de Iriarte y Oropesa]] (1750-1791), and [[Russia]]'s [[Ivan Krylov]] (1769–1844).
 + 
 +In modern times, while the fable has been [[trivialized]] in children's books, it has also been fully adapted to modern adult literature. [[Felix Salten]]'s ''[[Bambi, A Life in the Woods|Bambi]]'' (1923) is a ''[[Bildungsroman]]'' — a story of a [[protagonist]]'s coming-of-age — cast in the form of a fable. [[James Thurber]] used the ancient fable style in his books, ''[[Fables for Our Time and Famous Poems Illustrated|Fables for Our Time]]'' (1940) and ''The Beast in Me and Other Animals'' (1948). [[Władysław Reymont]]'s ''The Revolt'' (1924), a [[metaphor]] for the [[Bolshevik]] [[Russian Revolution of 1917|Revolution of 1917]], described a revolt by animals that take over their farm in order to introduce "equality." [[George Orwell]]'s ''[[Animal Farm]]'' (1945) similarly satirized [[Stalinist Communism]] in particular, and [[totalitarianism]] in general, in the guise of animal fable.
 + 
 +==Characteristics==
 +Fables can be described as a [[didactic]] mode of literature. That is, whether a fable has been handed down from generation to generation as [[oral literature]], or constructed by a literary tale-teller, its purpose is to impart a [[lesson]] or [[Value (personal and cultural)|value]], or to give sage [[advice]]. Fables also provide opportunities to [[laughter|laugh]] at human [[folly]], when they supply examples of behaviors to be avoided rather than emulated.
 + 
 +Fables frequently have as their central characters ''[[animal]]s'' that are given [[anthropomorph]]ic characteristics such as the ability to reason and speak. In [[antiquity]], [[Aesop]] presented a wide range of animals as [[protagonist]]s, including ''[[The Tortoise and the Hare]]'' which famously engage in a race against each other; and, in another classic fable, a fox which rejects grapes that are out of reach, as probably being sour ("[[sour grapes]]"). [[Old French|Medieval French]] ''[[fabliau]]x'' might feature [[Reynard the Fox]], a [[trickster]] figure, and offer a subtext mildly subversive of the [[feudal]] social order. Similarly, the [[18th-century]] Polish fabulist [[Ignacy Krasicki]] employs [[animal]]s as the title actors in his striking verse fable, "[[Fables and Parables#The Lamb and the Wolves|The Lamb and the Wolves]]." Krasicki uses ''[[plant]]s'' the same way in "[[Fables and Parables#The Violet and the Grass|The Violet and the Grass]]."
 + 
 +[[Personification]] may also be extended to ''[[inanimate|things inanimate]]'', as in Krasicki's "[[Fables and Parables#Bread and Sword|Bread and Sword]]." His "[[Fables and Parables#The Stream and the River|The Stream and the River]]," again, offers an example of personified ''[[Nature|forces of nature]]''.
 + 
 +''[[Gods|Divinities]]'' may also appear in fables as active agents. ''[[Aesop's Fables]]'' feature most of the Greek [[Pantheon (gods)|pantheon]], including [[Zeus]] and [[Hermes]].
-A fable differs from a '''[[parable]]''' in that the latter ''excludes'' animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors that assume speech and other powers of mankind. 
==Classic fabulists== ==Classic fabulists==
 +:''[[Roman fabulism]]''
* [[Aesop]] (mid-[[6th century BCE]]), author of ''[[Aesop's Fables]]''. * [[Aesop]] (mid-[[6th century BCE]]), author of ''[[Aesop's Fables]]''.
* [[Vishnu Sarma]] (ca. 200 BCE), author of the [[anthropomorphic]] political treatise and fable collection, the ''[[Panchatantra]]''. * [[Vishnu Sarma]] (ca. 200 BCE), author of the [[anthropomorphic]] political treatise and fable collection, the ''[[Panchatantra]]''.
* [[Bidpai]] (ca. 200 BCE), author of [[Sanskrit]] ([[Hindu]]) and [[Pali]] ([[Buddhist]]) animal fables in verse and prose. * [[Bidpai]] (ca. 200 BCE), author of [[Sanskrit]] ([[Hindu]]) and [[Pali]] ([[Buddhist]]) animal fables in verse and prose.
* [[Syntipas]] (ca. 100 BCE), [[India]]n [[philosopher]], reputed author of a collection of [[tale]]s known in [[Europe]] as ''[[Seven Wise Masters|The Story of the Seven Wise Masters]]''. * [[Syntipas]] (ca. 100 BCE), [[India]]n [[philosopher]], reputed author of a collection of [[tale]]s known in [[Europe]] as ''[[Seven Wise Masters|The Story of the Seven Wise Masters]]''.
-* [[Gaius Julius Hyginus]] (Hyginus, [[Latin]] author, native of [[Spain]] or [[Alexandria]], ca. 64 BCE - 17 C.E.), author of ''Fabulae''.+* [[Gaius Julius Hyginus]] (Hyginus, [[Latin]] author, native of [[Spain]] or [[Alexandria]], ca. 64 BCE - 17 C.E.), author of ''[[Fabulae]]''.
-* [[Phaedrus]] (15 BCE – 50 CE), [[Roman Republic|Roman]] [[fabulist]], by birth a [[Ancient Macedonians|Macedonian]].+* [[Phaedrus (fabulist)|Phaedrus]] (15 BCE – 50 CE), [[Roman fabulist]], by birth a [[Ancient Macedonians|Macedonian]].
* [[Walter of England]] c.1175 * [[Walter of England]] c.1175
* [[Marie de France]] ([[12th century]]). * [[Marie de France]] ([[12th century]]).
Line 20: Line 56:
* [[Ignacy Krasicki]] ([[Poland|Polish]], 1735 &ndash; 1801). * [[Ignacy Krasicki]] ([[Poland|Polish]], 1735 &ndash; 1801).
* [[Dositej Obradović]] ([[Serbia]]n, 1742? – 1811). * [[Dositej Obradović]] ([[Serbia]]n, 1742? – 1811).
-* [[Félix María de Samaniego]] ([[Spain|Spanish]], 1745 – 1801), best known for "The Ant and the Cicade."+* [[Félix María de Samaniego]] ([[Spain|Spanish]], 1745 – 1801), best known for "[[The Ant and the Cicade]]."
* [[Tomás de Iriarte]] ([[Spain|Spanish]], 1750 – 91). * [[Tomás de Iriarte]] ([[Spain|Spanish]], 1750 – 91).
* [[Ivan Krylov]] ([[Russia]]n, 1769 – 1844). * [[Ivan Krylov]] ([[Russia]]n, 1769 – 1844).
 +
==Modern fabulists== ==Modern fabulists==
* [[Leo Tolstoy]] (1828 – 1910). * [[Leo Tolstoy]] (1828 – 1910).
-* [[Nico Maniquis]] (1834 – 1912). 
* [[Ambrose Bierce]] (1842 – ?1914). * [[Ambrose Bierce]] (1842 – ?1914).
* [[Sholem Aleichem]] (1859 – 1916). * [[Sholem Aleichem]] (1859 – 1916).
Line 38: Line 74:
* [[José Saramago]] (born 1922). * [[José Saramago]] (born 1922).
* [[Italo Calvino]] (1923 – 85), "If on a winter's night a traveler," etc. * [[Italo Calvino]] (1923 – 85), "If on a winter's night a traveler," etc.
-* [[Arnold Lobel]] (1933 – 87), author of ''Fables'', winner 1981 [[Caldecott Medal]]. 
* [[Ramsay Wood]] (born 1943), author of ''Kalila and Dimna: Fables of Friendship and Betrayal''. * [[Ramsay Wood]] (born 1943), author of ''Kalila and Dimna: Fables of Friendship and Betrayal''.
* [[Bill Willingham]] (born 1956), author of ''[[Fables (Vertigo)|Fables]]'' graphic novels. * [[Bill Willingham]] (born 1956), author of ''[[Fables (Vertigo)|Fables]]'' graphic novels.
-* Acrid Hermit (born 1962), author of ''http://www.createspace.com/3340070" Misty Forest Fables. ''isbn 9781605859309+ 
==See also== ==See also==
* [[Allegory]] * [[Allegory]]
Line 48: Line 83:
* [[Apologia]] * [[Apologia]]
* [[Fairy tale]] * [[Fairy tale]]
 +* [[Fabulation]]
* [[Fantastique]] * [[Fantastique]]
 +* [[Fiction]]
* [[Ghost story]] * [[Ghost story]]
* [[Parable]] * [[Parable]]

Current revision

“Count not your chickens before they be hatched,” is a well-known proverb in English, and most people, if asked what was its origin, would probably appeal to La Fontaine’s delightful fable, _La Laitière et le Pot au Lait_. We all know Perrette, lightly stepping along from her village to the town, carrying the milk-pail on her head, and in her day-dreams selling her milk for a good sum, then buying a hundred eggs, then selling the chickens, then buying a pig, fattening it, selling it again, and buying a cow with a calf. The calf frolics about, and kicks up his legs--so does Perrette, and, alas! the pail falls down, the milk is spilt, her riches gone, and she only hopes when she comes home that she may escape a flogging from her husband. Did La Fontaine invent this fable? or did he merely follow the example of Sokrates, who, as we know from the Phædon, occupied himself in prison, during the last days of his life, with turning into verse some of the fables, or, as he calls them, the myths of Æsop."

-- "On the Migration of Fables" (1870) by Max Müller

"It is in my nature to sting you"

"But the most celebrated fable of ancient Rome is the work of Petronius Arbiter, perhaps the most remarkable fiction which has dishonoured the literary history of any nation. It is the only fable of that period now extant, but is a strong proof of the monstrous corruption of the times in which such a production could be tolerated, though, no doubt, writings of bad moral tendency might be circulated before the invention of printing, without arguing the depravity they would have evinced, if presented to the world subsequent to that period."--History of Fiction (1814) by John Colin Dunlop

Related e

Wikipedia
Wiktionary
Shop

Featured:

A fable is a brief, succinct story, in prose or verse, that features animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized (given human qualities), and that illustrates a moral lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.

A fable differs from a parable in that the latter excludes animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors that assume speech and other powers of mankind.

Fables central to this wiki are "The Scorpion and the Frog" and "The Belly and the Members."

Contents

[edit]

History

The fable is one of the most enduring forms of folk literature, spread abroad, modern researchers agree, less by literary anthologies than by oral transmission. Fables can be found in the literature of almost every country.

Several parallel animal fables in Sumerian and Akkadian are among those that Erich Ebeling introduced to modern Western readers; there are comparable fables from Egypt's Middle Kingdom, and Hebrew fables such as the "king of trees" in Book of Judges 9 and "the thistle and the cedar tree" in II Kings 14:9.

The varying corpus denoted Aesopica or Aesop's Fables includes most of the best-known western fables, which are attributed to the legendary Aesop, supposed to have been a slave in ancient Greece around 550 BC. 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 had introduced to the "sons of the Hellenes" had been an invention of "Syrians" from the time of "Ninos" (personifying Nineveh to Greeks) and Belos ("ruler"). Epicharmus of Kos and Phormis are reported as having been among the first to invent comic fables. Many familiar fables of Aesop include “The Crow and the Pitcher,” “The Hare and the Tortoise,” and “The Lion and the Mouse.”

Hundreds of fables were composed in ancient India during the first millennium BC, often as stories within frame stories. These included Vishnu Sarma's Panchatantra, the Hitopadesha, Vikram and The Vampire, and Syntipas' Seven Wise Masters, which were collections of fables that were later influential throughout the Old World. Ben E. Perry has argued that some of the Jataka tales and some of the fables in Panchatantra may have been influenced by similar Greek and Near Eastern ones. 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. The most famous fables from the Middle East were the One Thousand and One Nights, also known as the Arabian Nights.

Fables had a further long tradition through the Middle Ages, and became part of European high 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), Spain's Félix María de Samaniego (1745-1801) and Tomás de Iriarte y Oropesa (1750-1791), and Russia's Ivan Krylov (1769–1844).

In modern times, while the fable has been trivialized in children's books, it has also been fully adapted to modern adult literature. Felix Salten's Bambi (1923) is a Bildungsroman — a story of a protagonist's coming-of-age — cast in the form of a fable. James Thurber used the ancient fable style in his books, Fables for Our Time (1940) and The Beast in Me and Other Animals (1948). Władysław Reymont's The Revolt (1924), a metaphor for the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, described a revolt by animals that take over their farm in order to introduce "equality." George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945) similarly satirized Stalinist Communism in particular, and totalitarianism in general, in the guise of animal fable.

[edit]

Characteristics

Fables can be described as a didactic mode of literature. That is, whether a fable has been handed down from generation to generation as oral literature, or constructed by a literary tale-teller, its purpose is to impart a lesson or value, or to give sage advice. Fables also provide opportunities to laugh at human folly, when they supply examples of behaviors to be avoided rather than emulated.

Fables frequently have as their central characters animals that are given anthropomorphic characteristics such as the ability to reason and speak. In antiquity, Aesop presented a wide range of animals as protagonists, including The Tortoise and the Hare which famously engage in a race against each other; and, in another classic fable, a fox which rejects grapes that are out of reach, as probably being sour ("sour grapes"). Medieval French fabliaux might feature Reynard the Fox, a trickster figure, and offer a subtext mildly subversive of the feudal social order. Similarly, the 18th-century Polish fabulist Ignacy Krasicki employs animals as the title actors in his striking verse fable, "The Lamb and the Wolves." Krasicki uses plants the same way in "The Violet and the Grass."

Personification may also be extended to things inanimate, as in Krasicki's "Bread and Sword." His "The Stream and the River," again, offers an example of personified forces of nature.

Divinities may also appear in fables as active agents. Aesop's Fables feature most of the Greek pantheon, including Zeus and Hermes.

[edit]

Classic fabulists

Roman fabulism
[edit]

Modern fabulists

[edit]

See also


Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Fable" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

Retrieved from "http://artandpopularculture.com/Fable"
Personal tools
Metas