The Fairy Tale as a Genre of Folk Art

Cheerful and sad, scary and funny, they have been familiar to us since childhood. They are associated with our first ideas about the world, good and evil, and justice.

Both children and adults love fairy tales. They inspire writers and poets, composers and artists. Plays and films are staged based on fairy tales, and operas and ballets are created. Fairy tales came to us from ancient times. They were told by wandering beggars, tailors, and retired soldiers.

A fairy tale is one of the main forms of oral folk art. It is an artistic narrative of a fantastic, adventurous, or everyday nature.

A fairy tale is a work in which the main feature is "the intention to reveal the truth of life through a conditional poetic fiction that either elevates or reduces reality."

A fairy tale is an abstracted form of local legend, presented in a more condensed and crystallized form: The original form of folklore tales consists of local legends, parapsychological stories, and tales of miracles that arise as ordinary hallucinations due to the intrusion of archetypal contents from the collective unconscious.

The authors of almost all interpretations define a fairy tale as a type of oral narrative with fantastic fiction. The connection with myth and legends, as pointed out by M.-L. von Franz, elevates the fairy tale beyond a simple fantastic story. A fairy tale is not just poetic fiction or a play of imagination; through its content, language, plots, and images, it reflects the cultural values of its creator.

Since ancient times, fairy tales have been close and understandable to ordinary people. Fantasy intertwined with reality in them. Living in poverty, people dreamed of flying carpets, palaces, and self-laying tablecloths. And in Russian fairy tales, justice always triumphed, and good conquered evil. It is no coincidence that A. S. Pushkin wrote: "What a delight these fairy tales are! Each one is a poem!"

The structure of a fairy tale:
1. The beginning. ("In a certain kingdom, in a certain state, there lived...")
2. The main part.
3. The ending. ("They began to live and prosper" or "They threw a feast for the whole world...").

Every fairy tale is oriented toward a socio-pedagogical effect: it teaches, encourages action, and even heals. In other words, the potential of a fairy tale is much richer than its ideological and artistic significance.

Compared to other prose genres, a fairy tale is distinguished by a more developed aesthetic aspect. The aesthetic element is manifested in the idealization of positive characters, the vivid depiction of the "fairy-tale world," and the romantic coloring of events.

The wisdom and value of a fairy tale lie in the fact that it reflects, reveals, and allows one to experience the meaning of the most important universal values and the meaning of life as a whole. From the perspective of everyday meaning, a fairy tale is naive; from the perspective of life's meaning, it is profound and inexhaustible.

A child willingly believes in a fairy tale and trustingly follows it. But with such empathy comes a deeper understanding of the fairy tale, extracting from it their own childhood wisdom, which contributes to a clear emotional distinction between good and evil.

In conclusion, the fairy tale is not just a story; it is a mirror reflecting the deepest truths of human existence, a bridge between the mundane and the magical, and a timeless teacher of life's most profound lessons.

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The Fairy Tale as a Genre of Folk Art

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