Fairytale fantasy is distinguished from other subgenres of

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

by the works' heavy use of motifs, and often plots, from

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

History

Literary fairy tales were not unknown in the Roman era: Apuleius included several in '' The Golden Ass''. Giambattista Basile retold many

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...

s in the '' Pentamerone'', an aristocratic

frame story A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (con ...

and aristocratic retellings. From there, the literary fairy tale was taken up by the French 'salon' writers of 17th century Paris ( Madame d'Aulnoy,

Charles Perrault Charles Perrault ( , also , ; 12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703) was an iconic French author and member of the Académie Française. He laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from earlier folk tales ...

, etc.) and other writers who took up the folktales of their time and developed them into literary forms. The

Grimm brothers The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...

, despite their intentions being to ''restore'' the tales they collected, also transformed the ''Märchen'' they collected into ''Kunstmärchen''. These stories are not regarded as fantasies but as literary fairy tales, even retrospectively, but from this start, the fairy tale remained a literary form, and fairytale fantasies were an offshoot. Fairytale fantasies, like other fantasies, make use of

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

ic writing conventions of prose, characterization, or setting. The precise dividing line is not well defined, but it is applied, even to the works of a single author: George MacDonald's '' Lilith'' and ''

Phantastes ''Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women'' is a fantasy novel by Scottish writer George MacDonald, first published in London in 1858. It was later reprinted in paperback by Ballantine Books as the fourteenth volume of the ''Ballantine ...

'' are regarded as fantasies, while his "

The Light Princess ''The Light Princess'' is a Scottish fairy tale by George MacDonald. It was published in 1864 as a story within the larger story ''Adela Cathcart.'' Drawing on inspiration from "Sleeping Beauty", it tells the story of a princess afflicted by a c ...

", " The Golden Key", and " The Wise Woman" are commonly called fairy tales.

Genre overview

This genre may include modern fairy tales, which use fairy tale motifs in original plots, such as '' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' and '' The Hobbit'', as well as

erotic Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, scul ...

, violent, or otherwise more adult-oriented retellings of classic fairy tales (many of which, in many variants, were originally intended an audience of adults, or a mixed audience of all ages), such as the comic book series ''

Fables Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular moral ...

''. It can also include fairy tales with the plot fleshed out with characterization, setting, and fuller plots, to form a child's or young adult novel. Many fairytale fantasies are revisionist, often reversing the moral values of the characters involved. This may be done for the intrinsic aesthetic interest, or for a thematic exploration. Writers may also make the magic of the fairy tale self-consistent in a fantasy re-telling, based on technological extrapolation in a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

, or explain it away in a contemporary or historical work of fiction. Other forms of fantasy, especially comic fantasy, may include fairy tale motifs as partial elements, as when Terry Pratchett's '' Discworld'' contains a witch who lives in a gingerbread house, or when Patricia Wrede's '' Enchanted Forest'' is rife with princesses and princes trying to fit in their appointed fairy tale roles. The settings of fairytale fantasies, like the fairy tales they derive from, may owe less to world-building than to the logic of folk tales. Princes can go wandering in the woods and return with a bride without consideration for all the political effects of royal marriages. A common, comic, motif is a world where all the fairy tales take place, and the characters are aware of their role in the story,K. M. Briggs, ''The Fairies in English Tradition and Literature'', p 195, University of Chicago Press, London, 1967 occasionally even breaking the

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...

. Other writers may develop the world as fully as in other subgenres, generating a work that is also, based on setting, a high fantasy,

historical fantasy Historical fantasy is a category of fantasy and genre of historical fiction that incorporates fantastic elements (such as magic) into a more "realistic" narrative. There is much crossover with other subgenres of fantasy; those classed as Arthur ...

, or contemporary fantasy. Authors who have worked with the genre include such various figures as

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

, Kathryn Davis,

A. S. Byatt Dame Antonia Susan Duffy ( Drabble; born 24 August 1936), known professionally by her former marriage name as A. S. Byatt ( ), is an English critic, novelist, poet and short story writer. Her books have been widely translated, into more than t ...

, Italo Calvino, Donald Barthelme, Robert Coover,

Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nin ...

Kate Bernheimer Kate Bernheimer is an American fairy-tale writer, scholar and editor. Works Kate Bernheimer's first three novels, a trilogy based on Russian, German, and Yiddish fairy tales, "The Complete Tales of Lucy Gold" (2011), ''The Complete Tales of Me ...

, James Thurber,

Isaac Bashevis Singer Isaac Bashevis Singer ( yi, יצחק באַשעװיס זינגער; November 11, 1903 – July 24, 1991) was a Polish-born American Jewish writer who wrote and published first in Yiddish and later translated himself into English with the help ...

Rikki Ducornet Rikki Ducornet (; born Erica DeGre; April 19, 1943) is an American writer, poet, and artist. Her work has been described as “linguistically explosive and socially relevant,” and praised for “deploy ngtactics familiar to the historical avan ...

Robert Bly Robert Elwood Bly (December 23, 1926 – November 21, 2021) was an American poet, essayist, activist and leader of the mythopoetic men's movement. His best-known prose book is '' Iron John: A Book About Men'' (1990), which spent 62 weeks on ' ...

, Katie Farris and Annette Marie Hyder.

References

External links

The Fairy Tale Review: a Journal of Fairy Tale Literature

Cabinet des Fees: On-line Journal of Fairy Tale Literature

Journal of Mythic Arts: On-line Journal of Fairy Tale Literature

SurLaLune Fairy Tales:
Modern Interpretations pages for over 45 tales include lists of modern redactions of fairy tales. Also announces new releases in the genre. {{Fantasy fiction Fantasy genres *

History

Genre overview

See also

References

External links