Case Study Of Folklore, Myths And Fantasy

There are numerous genre’s in literature, but the level of importance and influence on an individual will differ. Exposure to books and stories is especially important for children because it their chance to acclimate themselves to written language and in turn create their own visuals for the toneless words. “Why Fairy Tales Matter: The Performative and the Transformative”, by Maria Tatar contains an ample amount of textual evidence from author’s research into fairytales, as well as writer’s personal experiences with fairytales. Although Tatar supports her claims with evidence, her resources are not concrete, and seems excessive at times. Also, her assertions are weakened by her failure to defend her conclusion against competing beliefs.

Maria Tatar’s “An Introduction to Fairy Tales” discusses the impact on how the stories help guide the children from their younger age. The first five paragraphs of the article mentioned about how the children can overflow with imagination, and can vividly see their reality of desire and also, fear. The fairytales can also corrupt the naïve minds of the child in a way of making them realize the reality of the world is unjustified, and people can be harsh. Moreover, Tatar gives an explanation on how people grow up with the same fairy tales with different versions; which gives an entirely different personal idea. Fairy tales also develop the child’s intellectual mind by reading various kinds of genre.

Mythology serves to create an explanation for why the world is the way it is. All religions have mythology in them and myths help people understand history. Myth can mean so many different things to different people. Some myths are total fiction, while others may have a hint of truth in them. But most myths are more of a symbolic and metaphoric truth, rather than a literal truth, because most of the time myths cannot be proven and people are not trying to prove that they are true. Myths become true to the people who believe in them and they use them as a sort of lens through which they see the world. They use myths to create explanations for themselves as to why the world is the way it is and they use them to help cope with the difficulties of life. Myths are a natural outgrowth of our imagination and our passions.

Once upon a time, there was a literary genre commonly know as fairy tales. They were mystical and wonderful and a child’s fantasy. These fairy tales were drastically misunderstood throughout many centuries, however. They endured a hard life of constant changing and editing to fit what the people of that time wanted. People of our own time are responsible for some of the radical changes endured by this undeserved genre. Now, these fairy tales had a young friend named Belle. Belle thought she knew fairy tales very well, but one day she found out just how wrong she was.

The tradition of telling fairy tales to children effects not only the listener but also the reader. Maria Tatar, in her book Off with Their Heads!, analyzes how fairy tales instill and reaffirm cultural values and expectations in their audience . Tatar proposes that fairy tales fall into three different tale-types: cautionary tales, exemplary stories, and reward- and- punishment tales. These three types portray different character traits as desirable and undesirable. Due to the tale’s varying literary methods it can change the effectiveness of the tale’s pedagogical value. In Tatar’s opinion, all of these tales are similar in the way they attempt to use punishment, reward, and fear to encourage or discourage certain behaviors. In the cautionary fairy tale “The Virgin Mary’s Child”, the use of punishment and fear to discourage certain behaviors is enhanced by the Christian motifs and values employed by the tale. These literary devices encourage the audience to reflect on and internalize the lessons that are presented in the fairy tale.

As we, University of Virginia students, took refuge in Bruce Holsinger’s Masterworks of Fantasy Literature class back in August, Holsinger succinctly defined Fantasy Literature as, “making reality more real,”. Fantasy Literature is famous for its talking animals, magical powers, utopian/dystopian societies, and containing exceptionally imaginative plots. After reading and analyzing several foundational fantasy novels, without a doubt, allegory is omnipresent. Furthermore, this literary aspect can either hinder or liberalize reading. Reading is hindered by interpretation with a preconceived, objective notion. In clearly associating a distinct understanding while reading, ultimately the novel’s freedom to draw conclusions is robbed. Furthermore, and unfortunately I must add, Fantasy Literature is often

Fantasy is a genre that uses supernatural situations as a main plot setting. Fantasy is a measure by which responders can be introduced to important notions in texts. C.S. Lewis’ novel, The Magician’s Nephew explores the creation of Narnia. Lewis explores friendship through the characters of Polly and Digory. The notion of Good vs. Evil and magic are also used throughout the novel and helps us understand the need for fantasy in our own lives.

It is one of the oldest forms of storytelling the world. These stories are found in all cultures as well as literature which includes Greek myths, fairy tales, legends, and religion. Seger describes myth stories as “more than true because it is lived by all of us, at some level, a story that connects, and speaks to us all” (335). Have you ever wondered why people have a strong connection to a character, and plot of a story or film? This is because myths represent our lives as Americans such as ourselves, goals, relationships, ups and downs in life, and etc.

"Once upon a time," the most used introduction phrase in common fairy tales used to start an adventure. These adventures have been around for years. The importance of some tales might be more significant than others, also based on culture. My goal for this paper is to educate my readers with the importance of fairy tales, especially for younger children. Fairy tales have been around for centuries from generations to generations. Different cultures, such as the Japanese and Western, have also expressed them differently. All these fairly tales teach children different aspects of life, which make these tales so important.

The tradition of storytelling is as old as civilization itself. Man has always been fond of adventures and legends. Tales from epics have been sung by bards in all parts of the world. The Iliad, as a story, has existed long before Homer put it to paper. Owing to our intellectual prowess, humans have been capable of deciphering countless number of phenomenon. However, that which we could not account for, we feared or worshiped, labeling it as other-worldly. When man assigned the unintelligible as supernatural, he was absolutely smitten. He created fantasy- a world full of fairies, gnomes, sprites, monsters and ghosts- all inducing emotions of either wonder, delight, or horror. Jack Zipes in his work Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion, emphasizing on the origin of fairy tales, states, "Though it is impossible to trace the historical origins and evolution of fairy tales to a particular time and place, we do know that humans began telling tales as soon

“Myths are stories that express meaning, morality or motivation. Whether they are true or not is irrelevant.” This was quoted by writer Michael Shermer, and it still holds today. This quote displays that myths have the power to take the reader away from reality and launch them into a world of mystery and phenomena. Also, even if myths have different stories and different characters, they all in some way portray regular societal values. For example, “The Fisherman and The Jinnee”, “Sifrit”, and “Song of Roland” all tell divergent stories with very diverse characters. But by the end, they all portray the values of righteousness and how one man, or hero can rescue an entire society.

In the previous century there have been two major series of fantasy novels; "Lord of the Rings" and more recently "Harry Potter". The genre, fantasy, is very broad, but generally contains one main character, the protagonist, who is fighting for, or against something, often against evil. In both these novels the main protagonist is fighting against evil and endures a kind of adventure and personal growth. As in most fantasy novels, the main characters are in an ulterior world, which is comparable in many ways. I intend to investigate into some of the many comparable components of these two novels.

Sagas about princes and princesses, beauty, magic, and love, fairy tales like Snow White and Cinderella among others have become children’s favorite bedtime stories. However, as parents tuck their sons and daughters in, they fail to realize that there is a much more daunting purpose to these stories. American writer and poet, Jane Yolen suggests that fairy tales indicate life values. Furthermore, Yolen insists that these tales are “thumbprints of history” (Yolen 27). Studying fairy tales in depth, she proves that the “functions of myths” consist of “creating a landscape of allusion [and] enabling us to understand our own and out culture from inside out” (Yolen 18). Yolen confirms that these stories comment on, “the abstract truths of our

In many of tradition, a myth carries within it a sense of sacred tradition and primordial relation. These myths are also serving as model for chosen tradition. Myths are extremely complex cultural reality that can be approached and interpreted from various viewpoints. These viewpoints are often related to the whole of

Conventions of fantasy genre are evident in various set texts. A text that has this genre is Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, written by J.K Rowling and the film is directed by Chris Columbus. For a text to be considered fantasy genre, its setting, plot, characters and themes need to have certain elements. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets consist of all of these fantasy elements. The purpose of my essay is to explain how the conventions of fantasy genre are evident in the film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.