We explain what a fable is, how they originate and the types that exist. In addition, we explain their general characteristics, structure and examples.
The fable is a subgenre of narrative literature.
What is a fable?
It is known as a fable a fictional narrative, of a literary type, generally brief, written in prose or verse. The characters have an archetypal or traditional value and, in addition to being people, they can be animated objects or animals. Within the story, objects, animals and people can communicate with each other. .
The fable is a subgenre of narrative literature (story). These are educational, exemplary narratives that transmit an ethical, traditional or moral message. The most common recipient of fables are children.
Therefore, its objective is pedagogical or illustrative: educate the reader through fictional or fantastic situations in the customs, vices or virtues that are considered fundamental in a specific human community, or perhaps in all of humanity.
The teaching of the fable is generally summarized at the end of the story, and is usually more or less explicit. This genre should not be confused with other didactic genres. such as the sermon, the parable or the apologues.
Although shares its traditional character with legend and myth, those other fantastic stories, which explain the origin of something, do not always include a moral. Although its narrative form is similar to the story, unlike it, the fable is explicitly didactic.
See also: Literary genres
Origin of the fable
Ancient fables tell stories of cunning or ungrateful animals.
The fable is a very old genre.
Archaeologists have found examples in Mesopotamian era clay tablets.
They are told in them stories of cunning, ungrateful or arrogant animalswhich would indicate that they were already used with the same educational meaning.
During the classical Greco-Roman era fables were very common, especially those of the Greek Aesop, author of many of which we still read.
His example was followed by The Romans Horace and Flavius Alvianowhich shows that it was a very successful genre in the West.
In the Middle Ages the fable continued to be writtenThe authors were generally anonymous (fearful of the Inquisition) or they were collective creations. Translations from Arabic or other languages were also abundant.
In the Renaissance the fable reached a very high pointespecially by authors such as the Frenchman Jean de La Fontaine.
How is the fable composed?
The traditional fable is made up of three parts:
- Start. Where the characters, their defining traits and the initial points of the story are presented: geographical, temporal, social location, etc. It is usually very brief.
- Complication. The plot development here leads to a problematic situation, either morally or ethically, arising from the characters’ initial characteristics or actions. Usually a challenge, an opportunity or a dilemma appears here.
- Outcome. The end of the fable, whether happy or unhappy, where the consequences of the choice made in the complication occur and, finally, the moral or final lesson of the story is stated.
Types of fable
Mythological fables collect the mystical content of a culture.
Depending on their nature, fables can be classified as:
- Agonal. They consist of a story of confrontation of behaviors or opinions between the protagonists, or between the protagonist and the antagonist. As they pass, one character will be rewarded and the other will be punished, thus establishing the teaching.
- Mythological. These are fables that contain the religious or mystical content of a specific culture or human group, that is, their mythology. But unlike epic tales, they focus on small anecdotes that demonstrate their cultural values.
- Of animals. The main characters are beings from the animal kingdom, who are provided with human traits (speech or intelligence) and are placed in possible situations in people’s daily lives.
The morale
It is called moral or teaching the life lesson that the reader obtains once the reading of the fable (or many children’s stories) is finished. It is a generally moral or ethical lesson.
The morale invites you to follow certain behaviors and reasoningsbut judges or advises against others, considered negative or reprehensible. It is usually stated by the narrator of the fable and generally exposed in an explicit manner to the reader.
Structure of the fable
The structure of the fable is based on an opposition, like the prince and the pauper.
The classic fable has a double structure, which consists of a fundamental, main opposition between two characters whose subjective positions are usually opposite, paradoxical or challenging. For example, it could be a hungry person and a rich person, a greedy person and a beggar, etc.
It is, therefore, about two characters who always find themselves in social inequality: one high and one low. Then, thanks to an unforeseen event (survivor), these positions are usually reversed, so that each of them learns a lesson by putting themselves in the other’s shoes.
This structure of the fable is called “double forwarding” by the Canadian semiologist Christian Vandendorpe in his book Learning to read fables (1989) and is extremely common, especially in popular fables, in which a very clear moral teaching can be appreciated.
Narrative elements of the fable
The narrator is the one who tells the story and at the end summarizes the moral.
The fable comprises very few narrative elements, as it is generally a simple and direct story. Its elements are:
- Characters. Generally they are few. There are at least two, whose positions, as we said before, are found.
- Setting. A place, usually described very succinctly.
- Storyteller. He is the one who tells the story and at the end summarizes the moral.
Differences between fable and legend
The legend is also a story full of warningswhich are disguised or attributed to generally supernatural, magical or mystical elements. In some cases, they inspire the reader with a certain fear, respect or vision about behaviors or elements that are traditionally considered inappropriate in their culture.
This relationship, however, is not always very clear, unlike the moral of the fable, which is explained at the end by the narrator.
The leyends They do not necessarily narrate clearly imaginary situations Nor are the protagonists always animals. Their main characteristic is that they go to remote time or to a time already forgotten. The fable, on the other hand, never aspires to be taken as real.
Importance of the fable
The fable is a very traditional genre in the history of reading. Along with the parable and the legend, it is one of the forms of story that preserves some type of specific teaching or warning for new generations.
It is likely that the first teaching methods (especially civic, moral or religious) consisted, among other things, of fables and similar stories. So, the child could memorize and understand the content educational in a simple and enjoyable way, often involving everyday animals.
Writers of fables
The Lion and the Mouse is a fable by Jean de la Fontaine.
Some of the major fable writers in history were:
- Aesop (c. 600 BC-564 BC)
- Gaius Julius Phaedrus (c. 15 BC-70 AD)
- Marie de France (unknown, circa 12th century)
- Ramon Llull (c. 1232-1315)
- Jean de la Fontaine (1621-1695)
In recent times, the legends of the Honduran-Guatemalan writer Augusto Monterroso (1921-2003) were well known.
Example of a fable
An example of a short fable by Augusto Monterroso:
The donkey and the flute
There had been a flute lying in the field for a long time that no one played anymore, until one day a donkey that was walking by snorted loudly on it, making it produce the sweetest sound of its life, that is, of the life of the donkey and of the flute.
Unable to understand what had happened, since rationality was not their strong suit and they both believed in rationality, they quickly separated, ashamed of the best that each other had done during their sad existence.