Fairytales Research Book.
What is a Fairytale? A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features folkloric fantasy characters, such as fairies,goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants, mermaids, or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. Fairy tales may be distinguished from other folk narratives such as legends and explicitly moral tales, including beast fables. In less technical contexts, the term is also used to describe something blessed with unusual happiness, as in “fairy tale ending” or “fairy tale romance”. In cultures where demons and witches are perceived as real,
fairy tales may merge into legends, where the narrative is perceived both by teller and hearers as being grounded in historical truth. However, unlike legends and epics, they usually do not contain more than superficial references to religion and actual places, people, and events, they take place once upon a time rather than in actual times.
Fairy tales are found in oral and in literary form. The history of the fairy tale is particularly difficult to trace because only the literary forms can survive. Still, the evidence of literary works at least indicates that fairy tales have existed for thousands of years, although not perhaps recognized as a genre; the name “fairy tale” was first ascribed to them by Madame d’Aulnoy in the late 17th century. Many of today’s fairy tales have evolved from centuries-old stories that have appeared, with variations, in multiple cultures around the world. Fairy tales, and works derived from fairy tales, are still written today.
Fairytales & Folklore The word “folklore” was first used by the English antiquarian William Thoms in a letter published in the London journal The Athenaeum in 1846. In usage, there is a continuum between folklore and mythology. Stith Thompson made a major attempt to index the motifs of both folklore and mythology, providing an outline into which new motifs can be placed, and scholars can keep track of all older motifs.
Folklore (or lore) consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales, stories, tall tales, and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called folkloristics, and people who study folklore are sometimes referred to as “folklorists”.
I thought it was very important to look at Folklore, as it is where many fairytales have stemed from, many being passed down generation to generation trough word of mouth rather than from books. -
Folklore (or lore) consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales, stories, tall tales, and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. Folk art, and styles and motifs, have inspired various artists. Pablo Picasso was inspired by African tribal sculptures and masks, while in Russia Natalia Goncharova and others were inspired by traditional woodcuts called luboks. The tradiotnal patterns used within Folk art is something which i wish to persue within my work, The simpl colours and patterns are very apealing and could work well when illustrating a fairytale to adults.
Fairytales & Folk Art The word “folklore” was first used by the English antiquarian William Thoms in a letter published in the London journal The Athenaeum in 1846. In usage, there is a continuum between folklore and mythology. Stith Thompson made a major attempt to index the motifs of both folklore and mythology, providing an outline into which new motifs can be placed, and scholars can keep track of all older motifs.
Antique folk art is distinguished from traditional art in that, while collected today based mostly on its artistic merit, it was never intended to be ‘art for art’s sake’. Examples include: weathervanes, old store signs and carved figures, portraits and carousels.
Fairytale Adaptations Over the years there have been many different adaptations of fairy tales, some in the form of book and others in the form of films. Some recent adaptations which are very popular are snow white, alice in wonderland, the little mermaid and litte red riding hood. However there have been many more, such as these ones, Six gun snow white, Fables, The bloody Chamber, The real Story of Hansel and Gretal, My mother she killed me, my father he ate me and finally I was rat.
Donkeyskin (French: Peau d’Âne) is a French literary fairytale written in verse by Charles Perrault. It was first published in 1695 in a small volume and republished in 1697 in Perrault’s Histoires ou contes du temps passé. Andrew Lang included it, somewhat euphemized, in The Grey Fairy Book A king had a beautiful wife and a rich castle, including a marvelous donkey whose droppings were gold. One day his wife died, after making him promise not to marry except to a woman whose beauty and attributes equaled hers. The king grieved, but was, in time, persuaded to seek another wife. It became clear that the only woman who would fit the promise was his own daughter.
Donkey Skin to Deerskin.
This origional fairytale has been adapted by Robin Mckinley, the stroy changed slighly by making the donkey into a dog, I think that this adaptation is a good example of how fairytales are still relevant in todays modern society.
Paper Art inspired by Folk Art I have looked at Paper art in quite a lot of detail, I find that it looks very similar to the detail in folk art, especially the patterns, it tells a story and therefore I would like to experiment further with this tecnique so that i can use it within my own work. In my finFal out come i was thinking about lazor cutting each page, so that it makes up a story, i could use this as it looks like folk art, and would link in with my choice of research topic of fairytales.
Eiko Ojala After looking at paper cutting, and the different ways of working, I came e across Eiko Ojala, who’s work really inspired me, i find his work really ineresting, as he uses shadow to help create te image, I also find his choice of colour unusual, he uses pastle and primary together, which lets of a child like feel to his work.
Eiko Ojala is a illustrator, graphic designer and art director. He lives in Tallinn, Estonia. His illustrations, graphic design are particularly aimed towards books and magazines. Eiko has been nominated to “Young iIllustrators Award” at www.illustrative.de. He has been featured It’s Nice That, iGnant, Trendland, Fubiz and Etapes.
By Katie Winter