What are the characteristics of fairy tales?

Fairy tales are a kind of children's literature. Through rich imagination, fantasy and exaggeration to shape the image, reflect life, and carry out ideological education for children. General stories are magical and tortuous, vivid and simple, and descriptions of natural objects are often anthropomorphic, which can adapt to children's acceptance. (Cihai)

Fairy tales are an important type of children's literature. It is a fictional story with a strong fantasy color, and uses exaggeration, personification, symbolism and other expressions to weave strange plots. Fantasy is the basic feature of fairy tales, and it is also a special artistic means for fairy tales to reflect life. Fairy tales mainly describe virtual things and realms, in which the "characters" are not real imaginary images, and the stories told are impossible. But all kinds of fantasies in fairy tales are rooted in reality and a reflection of life. Fairy tale creation generally adopts exaggeration and personification, follows certain logic to develop bizarre plots, produces a strong fantasy atmosphere and transcends the constraints of time and space, which is also virtual and real, and seems to be virtual and true. In addition, it often uses symbolic techniques to create imaginary images to insinuate and summarize realistic interpersonal relationships. (Dictionary of Children's Literature))

From the perspective of expression, fairy tales can be roughly divided into three types: superman fairy tales, anthropomorphic fairy tales and normal fairy tales. But these three are not completely separated, and sometimes they are interrelated. In other words, in a fairy tale, there may be both normal and humanoid expressions. Wait, wait.

From the perspective of subject matter, fairy tales (fairy tales with big concepts) can be divided into two categories: scientific fairy tales (also known as "knowledge fairy tales") and literary fairy tales (also known as "moral fairy tales"). The usual "fairy tale" defaults to "literary fairy tale".

Let's take a look at the specific characteristics of fairy tales.

(1) The plot is complete and tortuous, and the image is vivid and vivid.

We saw the story of The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, from the young cowherd to the big cowherd, to his meeting with the Weaver Girl, having children, and finally living far apart. These plots are not only complete and clear, but also tortuous and moving, vivid and unforgettable. The story of "Magic Pen Ma Liang" is about a poor boy Ma Liang, who got a magic pen with tenacious and hardworking spirit. He used this pen to help the poor, outsmarted the rich man and the emperor, which made people feel very happy. This fairy tale has vivid plot and vivid image of Ma Liang, which has certain educational significance.

(2) Fantasy is rich, peculiar, exaggerated and strongly moving.

Fantasy is an imagination. It is a special imagination related to personal wishes and pointing to the future. This is a creative imagination, not a recreated imagination. After reading The Little Match Girl, a picture of the little girl grabbing matches and freezing to death will come to our mind. The little girl's fantasy of striking matches five times in the article is to create imagination. In the fairy tale world, cattle and sheep can talk, puppets can travel, people can be resurrected after death, spells can reveal gold and silver jewelry, and tablecloths can produce delicious food. Clothes can be invulnerable ... these are all in line with children's fantasies, and children also feel interesting and natural. But fantasy does not mean thinking. It has a certain realistic foundation, and they are often combined by symbolic methods.

Fairy tales are inseparable from fantasy, and fantasy is inseparable from exaggeration. Exaggeration is deliberately exaggerating or narrowing the object or a certain feature to be expressed. If the fantasy content in fairy tales is not exaggerated, it will lose its luster; Fairy tale images will look dim if they are not exaggerated. Fairy tales are often ironic, but without exaggeration, they will lose their edge. There is no exaggeration in fairy tales, and there is no feeling and dyeing power. For example, the self-righteous naked emperor in The Emperor's New Clothes is impossible in real life, but we believe this story because there is such a liar in reality who uses the hypocrisy and ignorance of some people to direct a series of lies. Therefore, this fantasy comes from reality and is higher than reality, which is symbolic.

(3) The language is concise and lively, and the expressions are diverse.

Children's literature works have special requirements in language, and fairy tales, as a specific genre, have their own unique characteristics. In terms of language style, the language of fairy tales requires conciseness, vividness, accuracy and conciseness. As far as the expressive effect of language is concerned. Fairy tales are usually represented by personification, contrast and repetition. In Pushkin's The Story of the Fisherman and the Golden Fish, there is a sharp contrast between the goldfish fisherman and the greedy and cruel old woman. The repetitive narration of some plots and scenes has formed a rhythmic repetition. Their language highlights the personality characteristics of the characters and makes the plot twists and turns interesting.

Fairy tale world is a dynamic world. Let's walk into this magical world together, read more books and appreciate more.