Fable - Literary Terms
Fable - Literary Terms
A fable i a brief tale, either in prose or verse, with a moral. Non-human creatures or inanimate things are normally the characters.''The presentation of human beings as animals is the characteristic of the literary fable and is unlike the fable that still flourishes among the primitive peoples”. (J.A.Cuddon)
The fable as a genre probably arose in Greece. The first collection of fables is ascribed to Aesop who lived in 6th century B.C. The principal successors of Aesop were Phaedru's and Babrius who flourished in the first century AD. Phaedrus preserved Aesop's fables. In the 10th century a prose adaptation of Phaedrus's translation appeared under the title Romulus. The popularity of Romulus lasted until the 17th century. A famous collection of Indian fables was the Bidpai which were probably composed originally in Sanskrit in AD 300. Many versions of these were made in prose and verse in different languages between the third and sixteenth centuries. Marie de France was the best of the medieval fabulists who composed 102 fables in verse. After her came La Fontaine of France who raised the whole level of the fable, and is generally acknowledged as the World's master. He took most of the stories from Aesop and Phaedrus, but translated them in his verse. His Fables choisies were published in twelve books, between 1668 and 1694. La Fontaine had many imitators, of whom mention may be made of Noble, Pignotti, Gay, Florian, IvanKrylov of Russia, Thurber of America, and Orwell of England. Orwell's Animal Farm, a political satire, is in fable form.
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