traditional_literature

Traditional Literature

 

Main types: See genre descriptions.

 

• Fables
• Fairy Tales
• Folktales
• Legends
• Myths
• Tall Tales
• Epics
• Nursery Rhymes 

 

 

Features

1. Short plots
2. Details omitted (sparse language)
3. Action concentrated
4. One-dimensional "flat" characters - good or evil
5. Good versus evil
6. Stock beginnings ("Once upon a time") and endings ("and they lived happily ever after.")
7. Theme = a moral or a lesson

 

Dr. M. does not agree with your textbook. Settings DO matter in traditional literature. The setting is an important aspect of the cultural information embedded in these stories.

 

 

See: http://pbskids.org/lions/stories/

 

Readers' Advisory from Graduate Student Bibliographies: LS5633: The Art of Storytelling