This is an easy-reading drama about a little hen, a rooster, a
duck, a goose and a fox. Tales were told or enacted dramatically,
rather than written down, and handed down from generation to
generation. Because of this, the history of their development is
necessarily obscure. and fairy tales appear, now and again, in
written literature throughout literate cultures, as in The Golden
Ass, which includes Cupid and Psyche (Roman, 100-200 AD), or the
Panchatantra (India 3rd century BCE), but it is unknown to what
extent these reflect the actual folk tales even of their own time.
The stylistic evidence indicates that these, and many later
collections, reworked folk tales into literary forms. What they do
show is that the fairy tale has ancient roots, older than the
Arabian Nights collection of magical tales (compiled circa 1500
AD), such as Vikram and the Vampire, and Bel and the Dragon.
Besides such collections and individual tales, in China, Taoist
philosophers such as Liezi and Zhuangzi recounted fairy tales in
their philosophical works. In the broader definition of the genre,
the first famous Western fairy tales are those of Aesop (6th
century BC) in ancient Greece. The fairy tale itself became popular
among the precieuses of upper-class France (1690-1710), and among
the tales told in that time were the ones of La Fontaine and the
Contes of Charles Perrault (1697), who fixed the forms of Sleeping
Beauty and Cinderella. Although Straparola's, Basile's and
Perrault's collections contain the oldest known forms of various
fairy tales, on the stylistic evidence, all the writers rewrote the
tales for literary effect. In the mid-17th century, a vogue for
magical tales emerged among the intellectuals who frequented the
salons of Paris. These salons were regular gatherings hosted by
prominent aristocratic women, where women and men could gather
together to discuss the issues of the day. In the 1630s, apathetic
women began to gather in their own living rooms, salons, in order
to discuss the topics of their choice: arts and letters, politics,
and social matters of immediate concern to the women of their
class: marriage, love, financial and physical independence, and
access to education. This was a time when women were barred from
receiving a formal education. Some of the most gifted women writers
of the period came out of these early salons (such as Madeleine de
Scudery and Madame de Lafayette), which encouraged women's
independence and pushed against the gender barriers that defined
their lives. The salonnieres argued particularly for love and
intellectual compatibility between the sexes, opposing the system
of arranged marriages. Sometime in the middle of the 17th century,
a passion for the conversational parlour game based on the plots of
old folk tales swept through the salons. Each salonniere was called
upon to retell an old tale or rework an old theme, spinning clever
new stories that not only showcased verbal agility and imagination,
but also slyly commented on the conditions of aristocratic life.
Great emphasis was placed on a mode of delivery that seemed natural
and spontaneous The decorative language of the fairy tales served
an important function . . . disguising the rebellious subtext of
the stories and sliding them past the court censors. Critiques of
court life (and even of the king) were embedded in extravagant
tales and in dark, sharply dystopian ones. Not surprisingly, the
tales by women often featured young (but clever) aristocratic girls
whose lives were controlled by the arbitrary whims of fathers,
kings, and elderly wicked fairies . . . as well as tales in which
groups of wise fairies (i.e., intelligent, independent women)
stepped in and put all to rights.
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