Editing Fairy tale (section)

==Definition==
[[File:Däumling.jpg|alt=A painting from the fairy tale "The Facetious Nights of Straparola", showing people observing as a person jumps inside a building.|thumb|[[Hop-o'-My-Thumb]] and the [[ogre]] in an 1865 illustration]]
Although the fairy tale is a distinct genre within the larger category of folktale, the definition that marks a work as a fairy tale is a source of considerable dispute.<ref>{{Cite web |first=Heidi Anne |last=Heiner |url=https://www.surlalunefairytales.com/intro-pages/what-is-a-fairy-tale.html |title=What Is a Fairy Tale? |work=Sur La Lune |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200815073414/https://surlalunefairytales.com/intro-pages/what-is-a-fairy-tale.html |archive-date=15 August 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> The term itself comes from the translation of Madame D'Aulnoy's ''Conte de fées'', first used in her collection in 1697.<ref name=Windling1>{{cite journal | first=Terri |last=Windling | url = http://www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/forconte.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140328002739/http://www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/forconte.html | archive-date = 2014-03-28 | title = Les Contes de Fées: The Literary Fairy Tales of France | journal = Realms of Fantasy | url-status = usurped | year = 2000 }}</ref> Common parlance conflates fairy tales with [[beast fable]]s and other folktales, and scholars differ on the degree to which the presence of fairies and/or similarly mythical beings (e.g., [[Elf|elves]], [[goblin]]s, [[troll]]s, giants, huge monsters, or mermaids) should be taken as a differentiator. [[Vladimir Propp]], in his ''Morphology of the Folktale'', criticized the common distinction between "fairy tales" and "animal tales" on the grounds that many tales contained both [[fantasy|fantastic]] elements and animals.{{sfn|Propp|1968|p=5}} Nevertheless, to select works for his analysis, Propp used all [[Russian folklore|Russian folktales]] classified as a folklore, [[Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index]] 300–749,{{--}}in a cataloguing system that made such a distinction{{--}}to gain a clear set of tales.{{sfn|Propp|1968|p=19}} His own analysis identified fairy tales by their plot elements, but that in itself has been criticized, as the analysis does not lend itself easily to tales that do not involve a [[quest]], and furthermore, the same plot elements are found in non-fairy tale works.{{Sfn|Swann Jones|1995|p=15}}

{{Blockquote|text=Were I asked, what is a fairytale? I should reply, Read [[Undine (novella)|Undine]]: that is a fairytale{{nbsp}}... of all fairytales I know, I think Undine the most beautiful.|author=[[George MacDonald]], ''The Fantastic Imagination''}}

As [[Stith Thompson]] points out, talking animals and the presence of [[magic (fantasy)|magic]] seem to be more common to the fairy tale than [[Fairy|fairies]] themselves.{{Sfn|Thompson|1977|p=55}} However, the mere presence of animals that talk does not make a tale a fairy tale, especially when the animal is clearly a mask on a human face, as in [[fable]]s.{{Sfn|Tolkien|1966|p=15}}

In his essay "[[On Fairy-Stories]]", [[J. R. R. Tolkien|J.{{nbsp}}R.{{nbsp}}R.{{nbsp}}Tolkien]] agreed with the exclusion of "fairies" from the definition, defining fairy tales as stories about the adventures of men in ''[[Fairyland|Faërie]]'', the land of fairies, fairytale princes and princesses, [[dwarf (mythology)|dwarves]], elves, and not only other magical species but many other marvels.{{Sfn|Tolkien|1966|pp=10–11}} However, the same essay excludes tales that are often considered fairy tales, citing as an example ''[[The Heart of a Monkey|The Monkey's Heart]]'', which [[Andrew Lang]] included in ''[[The Lilac Fairy Book]]''.{{Sfn|Tolkien|1966|p=15}}

Steven Swann Jones identified the presence of magic as the feature by which fairy tales can be distinguished from other sorts of folktales.{{Sfn|Swann Jones|1995|p=8}} Davidson and Chaudri identify "transformation" as the key feature of the genre.<ref name=companion>{{Cite book |title=A companion to the fairy tale |author1-first=Hilda Ellis |author1-last=Davidson |author2-first=Anna |author2-last=Chaudhri |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |date=2006 |page=39 |isbn=978-0-85991-784-1}}</ref> From a psychological point of view, Jean Chiriac argued for the necessity of the [[Fantastique|fantastic]] in these narratives.<ref>{{cite web |last=Jones |first=J. |url=http://www.freudfile.org/psychoanalysis/fairy_tales.html |title=Psychoanalysis and Fairy-Tales |website=Freud File |publisher=The Romanian Association for Psychoanalysis Promotion |access-date=13 March 2013 |archive-date=10 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121110060409/http://www.freudfile.org/psychoanalysis/fairy_tales.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In terms of aesthetic values, [[Italo Calvino]] cited the fairy tale as a prime example of "quickness" in literature, because of the economy and concision of the tales.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Calvino |first=Italo |author-link=Italo Calvino |date=1988 |title=Six Memos for the Next Millennium |publisher=Harvard University Press |pages=36–37 |isbn=0-674-81040-6}}</ref>

===History of the genre===
[[File:Perrault1.jpg|left|thumb|alt=A picture by Gustave Doré showing Mother Goose, an old woman, reading written (literary) fairy tales to children|A picture by [[Gustave Doré]] of [[Mother Goose]] reading written (literary) fairy tales]]
Originally, stories that would contemporarily be considered fairy tales were not marked out as a separate genre. The German term "{{lang|de|Märchen}}" stems from the old German word "{{lang|de|Mär}}", which means news or tale.<ref>{{cite OED|Märchen|id=113957|access-date=22 September 2022}}</ref> The word "{{lang|de|Märchen}}" is the [[diminutive]] of the word "{{lang|de|Mär}}", therefore it means a "little story". Together with the common beginning "[[once upon a time]]", this tells us that a fairy tale or a märchen was originally a little story from a long time ago when the world was still magic. (Indeed, one less regular German [[once upon a time|opening]] is "In the old times when wishing was still effective".)<ref>{{Cite news|last=Healy|first=Marti|date=2019-01-19|title=Marti Healy: Begin anywhere|url=https://www.postandcourier.com/aikenstandard/lifestyle/marti-healy-begin-anywhere/article_63f41df0-cd07-5efe-8460-6b979334269c.html|access-date=2023-01-30|work=[[Aiken Standard]]|language=en|archive-date=30 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230130144821/https://www.postandcourier.com/aikenstandard/lifestyle/marti-healy-begin-anywhere/article_63f41df0-cd07-5efe-8460-6b979334269c.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The French writers and adaptors of the ''conte'' ''de fées'' genre often included fairies in their stories; the genre name became "fairy tale" in English translation and "gradually eclipsed the more general term ''folk'' tale that covered a wide variety of oral tales".<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Zipes|first=Jack|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/185/monograph/book/3591|title=Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales|date=2002b|publisher=The University Press of Kentucky|isbn=978-0-8131-7030-5|location=Lexington|pages=28}}</ref> [[Jack Zipes]] also attributes this shift to changing sociopolitical conditions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that led to the [[trivialization]] of these stories by the upper classes.<ref name=":1" />

Roots of the genre come from different oral stories passed down in European cultures. The genre was first marked out by writers of the [[Renaissance literature|Renaissance]], such as [[Giovanni Francesco Straparola]] and [[Giambattista Basile]], and stabilized through the works of later collectors such as [[Charles Perrault]] and the [[Brothers Grimm]].{{Sfn|Zipes|2001|pp=xi–xii}} In this evolution, the name was coined when the ''[[précieuses]]'' took up writing literary stories; [[Madame d'Aulnoy]] invented the term ''Conte de fée'', or fairy tale, in the late 17th century.{{Sfn|Zipes|2001|p=858}}

Before the definition of the genre of fantasy, many works that would now be classified as fantasy were termed "fairy tales", including Tolkien's ''[[The Hobbit]]'', [[George Orwell]]'s ''[[Animal Farm]]'', and [[L. Frank Baum]]'s ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]''.{{Sfn|Attebery|1980|p=83}} Indeed, Tolkien's "On Fairy-Stories" includes discussions of [[world-building]] and is considered a vital part of fantasy criticism. Although fantasy, particularly the subgenre of [[fairytale fantasy]], draws heavily on fairy tale motifs,{{Sfn|Martin|2002|pp=38–42}} the genres are now regarded as distinct.

===Folk and literary===
The fairy tale, told orally, is a sub-class of the [[folklore|folktale]]. Many writers have written in the form of the fairy tale. These are the literary fairy tales, or {{lang|de|Kunstmärchen}}.<ref name="Windling1"/> The oldest forms, from ''[[Panchatantra]]'' to the ''[[Pentamerone]]'', show considerable reworking from the oral form.{{Sfn|Swann Jones|1995|p=35}} The [[Brothers Grimm|Grimm brothers]] were among the first to try to preserve the features of oral tales. Yet the stories printed under the Grimm name have been considerably reworked to fit the written form.{{Sfn|Attebery|1980|p=5}}

Literary fairy tales and oral fairy tales freely exchanged plots, motifs, and elements with one another and with the tales of foreign lands.{{Sfn|Zipes|2001|p=xii}} The literary fairy tale came into fashion during the 17th century, developed by aristocratic women as a parlour game. This, in turn, helped to maintain the oral tradition. According to [[Jack Zipes]], "The subject matter of the conversations consisted of literature, mores, taste, and etiquette, whereby the speakers all endeavoured to portray ideal situations in the most effective oratorical style that would gradually have a major effect on literary forms."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Fairy Tale as Myth/Myth as Fairy Tale|last=Zipes|first=Jack|publisher=University of Kentucky Press|year=2013|pages=20–21|isbn=978-0-8131-0834-6}}</ref> Many 18th-century folklorists attempted to recover the "pure" folktale, uncontaminated by literary versions. Yet while oral fairy tales likely existed for thousands of years before the literary forms, there is no pure folktale, and each literary fairy tale draws on folk traditions, if only in parody.{{Sfn|Zipes|2001|p=846}} This makes it impossible to trace forms of transmission of a fairy tale. Oral story-tellers have been known to read literary fairy tales to increase their own stock of stories and treatments.{{Sfn|Degh|1988|p=73}}