Beast fable

Beast fable

The beast fable, usually a short story or poem in which animals talk, is a traditional form of allegorical writing [M. H. Abrams, "A Glossary of Literary Terms" (5th edition 1985), p. 6.] . It is a type of fable, in which human behaviour and weaknesses are subject to scrutiny, by reflection into the animal kingdom.

Important traditions in beast fables are represented by the "Panchatantra" and "Kalila and Dimna" (Sanskrit and Arabic originals), [Ramsay Wood, "Kalila and Dimna, Fables of Friendship and Betrayal" by Ramsay Wood, Introduction by Doris Lessing, Postscript by Professor Christine van Ruymbeke, Saqi Books, London, 2008. [http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0863566618/] and [http://www.ramsaywood.com/kalila.html] ] Aesop (Greek original), "One Thousand and One Nights" ("Arabian Nights") and separate trickster traditions (West African and Native American). The medieval French "Roman de Reynart" is called a beast-epic, with the recurring figure Reynard the fox, of whom story is built upon story [H. J. Blackham, "The Fable as Literature" (1985), p. 40.] .

Beast fables are typically transmitted freely between languages, and often assume pedagogic roles: for example Latin versions of Aesop were standard as elementary textbook material in the European Middle Ages, and the Uncle Remus stories brought trickster tales into English.

Notes


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • beast fable — noun : a prose or verse fable or short story which usually points a moral and in which animal characters are represented as acting with human feelings and motives * * * beast fable noun A story in which animals behave like humans • • • Main Entry …   Useful english dictionary

  • beast fable — ▪ literature       a prose or verse fable or short story that usually has a moral. In beast fables animal characters are represented as acting with human feelings and motives. Among the best known examples in Western literature are those… …   Universalium

  • beast fable — noun Date: 1865 a usually didactic prose or verse fable in which animals speak and act like human beings …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • beast epic — (beast fable, Tierdichtung)    Medieval beast epics, like the earlier fables of Aesop and others, were linked series of tales revolving around animals that talked and behaved like human beings. Often they were written in a mock epic style that… …   Encyclopedia of medieval literature

  • fable — fabler, n. /fay beuhl/, n., v., fabled, fabling. n. 1. a short tale to teach a moral lesson, often with animals or inanimate objects as characters; apologue: the fable of the tortoise and the hare; Aesop s fables. 2. a story not founded on fact:… …   Universalium

  • Fable — TOCrightA fable is a 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… …   Wikipedia

  • beast tale — ▪ literature       a prose or verse narrative similar to the beast fable in that it portrays animal characters acting as humans but unlike the fable in that it usually lacks a moral. Joel Chandler Harris (Harris, Joel Chandler) s Uncle Remus: His …   Universalium

  • beast tale — noun : a prose or verse narrative similar to the beast fable but usually without a moral …   Useful english dictionary

  • FABLE — FABLE, an animal tale (according to the most general and hence most widely accepted definition), i.e., a tale in which the characters are animals, and which contains a moral lesson. The genre also includes tales in which plants or inanimate… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • fable, parable, and allegory — Introduction       any form of imaginative literature (allegory) or spoken utterance constructed in such a way that readers or listeners are encouraged to look for meanings hidden beneath the literal surface of the fiction. A story (rhetoric) is… …   Universalium

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”