A literary fairy tale is a fairy tale that differs from an oral folktale in that it is written by "a single identifiable author", as defined by Jens Tismar's monograph. They also differ from oral folktakes, which can be characterized as "simple and anonymous", and exist in a mutable and difficult to define genre with a close relationship to oral tradition.
One of the earliest stories of this type is that of Cupid and Psyche, a story originally from Metamorphoses (also called The Golden Ass), written in the 2nd century AD by Apuleius.
Notable authors of literary fairy tales
See also
References
- Tismar, Jens (1977). Kunstmärchen. Stuttgart: Metzler. doi:10.1007/978-3-476-99245-1. ISBN 978-3-476-10155-6.
- Mayer, Mathias; Tismar, Jens (2003). Kunstmärchen (4 ed.). Stuttgart/Weimar: J.B. Metzler. doi:10.1007/978-3-476-04122-7. ISBN 978-3-476-14155-2.
- Zipes (2000), p. xv.
- Lewis, C. S. (1956). Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. p. 311. ISBN 0156904365.
Sources
- Zipes, Jack (2000). The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales: The Western tradition from medieval to modern. New York: Oxford UP. ISBN 0-19-860115-8.
- Canepa, Nancy L. (1999). From Court to Forest: Giambattista Basile's "Lo cunto de li cunti" and the Birth of the Literary Fairy Tale. Series in Fairy-Tale Studies. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0814327583.
- Canepa, Nancy L., ed. (1997). Out of the Woods: The Origins of the Literary Fairy Tale in Italy and France. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0814326870.
- Lavagetto, Mario; Buia, Anna (2009). Racconti di orchi, di fate e di streghe: la fiaba letteraria in Italia [Tales of Orcs, Fairies and Witches: the Literary Fairy Tale in Italy]. I Meridiani (in Italian) (2 ed.). A. Mondadori. ISBN 978-8804573883.