2. Why learn about Traditional Literature?
Serves as the building blocks for contemporary
literature/framework for literature
Provides a window on diverse cultures
Provides moral models for children as the
struggle between good and evil is applied to
events in their own lives
3. Folktale
A story told by word of
mouth to teach a lesson
Passed down from
generation to generation
4. Folk tale
Folktales feature common people, such as
peasants, and commonplace events.
Characters representing human frailty (being
fragile).
Characters represent human qualities
Good
Evil
Wisdom
Foolishness
Laziness
Etc.
5. Folktales
The conflict of the story is clear.
The resolution usually has happy endings
Good is rewarded and evil is punished
Elements of magic or magical characters
may be incorporated, but logic rules so
the supernatural must make sense in the
story.
6.
7. Fables
Short stories that teach a moral (lesson)
Plot is very brief, with one event.
Animal characters with human characteristics
Characters are flat, and stand for one human
trait.
Themes: cooperation, understanding,
acceptance, etc.
Morals sometimes are inferred.
May be expressed in a proverb.
8. Aesop's Fables
This famous Book of Fables, which are always
referred to as Aesop's Fables, date back to the 5th
Century BC.
Lion and the Mouse
The Fox and the Crow
Goose with the Golden Eggs
Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse
Ant and the Grasshopper
9. Fairytale
Elements of a Fairytale
Contains magic/enchantments
Likely character types:
Talking animals
Witches
Fairies
Nobles (Kings, Queens, Princes, Princesses)
Godparents
10. Fairy Tale- setting
Setting does not have a definite location or time
Familiar fairytales look like Germany
11. The best know tale in the World
Cinderella
The oldest known version was found in China in the 9th century.
It is basically a story of sibling rivalry.
There are over 700 different versions.
12. Hans Christian Anderson
• Danish author and poet
• Wrote more than 160 Fairy Tales
• Many of Andersen's fairy tales depict characters
who gain happiness in life after suffering and
conflicts
• Ugly Duckling theme of self-discovery, which
Click on
matched his own life Anderson’s
• Optimistic belief in the triumph of the good picture to see his
stories
• Known as the father of the modern fairytale
13. Brothers Grimm
Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm and Wilhelm
Carl Grimm
Click
picture for Wrote children’s tales and folklore to
Grimm preserve German culture/heritage
stories Wrote 211 stories together
More stories
14. Fractured Fairy tale
When authors modernize or change one or more of
the elements of the story, the story is called a
fractured fairy tale.
Plot (conflict, rising action, climax, falling action,
resolution)
Setting (time and/or place)
Character (name, character traits)
Point of View
Theme
17. Myths
A mythology is a related body of stories which
make up the official beliefs or explanations of
a religious system.
Myths attempt to explain the beginning of the
world, natural phenomena, the relationships
between the gods and humans, and the origins
of civilization.
Myths, like legends, are stories told as though
they were true.
