Abstract
This article aims to study the inclusion of myth in Aesop’s Fables in order to re-evaluate the role of fable in the genre system of traditional literature. In the first part, we analyse several perspectives on the fable, ranging from the Middle Ages and Manuel Mendes da Vidigueira’s early seventeenth century collection, to the turn from the philosophical to the poetical fable in the aftermath of La Fontaine’s Fables, and the selection of fables in Teofilo Braga’s collection of traditional tales.The second part is a comparative study of the fable “June and the Peacock”, focusing mainly on the uses of mythological material incorporated in Manuel Mendes da Vidigueira’s fables in Braga’s collection. Our observations about the function of myth in fables leads us to argue that the fable in traditional literature tends to loose its characteristics as an autonomous genre and to be absorbed by the tale.
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