Fairy Tale Narratives Research Articles

But They Still Lived Happily Ever After – or at Least, Happily

Abstract This paper examines three films that mark Disney’s foray into postmodern fairy-tale narratives to determine if these attempts to move beyond or complicate Disney princess or fairy-tale narratives are successful. Drawing from fairy-tale studies and age studies, it particularly examines how gendered narratives and stereotypes operate within these narrative spaces, looking at the figures of the princess, the godmother, and the stepmother in Enchanted (2007), Godmothered (2020), and Disenchanted (2022). Through this study I aim to discover if Disney’s contemporary postmodern fairy-tale narratives open up more potential for women in various roles as they age, or if they reiterate various age-related gender stereotypes.

Fairy Tales of Genocide: Processing the Holocaust by Recontextualising Fairy-Tale Narratives

This article explores the intersection of fairy tales and Holocaust narratives, exploring the emerging trend of presenting Holocaust tales within the fairy-tale genre as a societal response to grappling with Holocaust trauma. Examining linguistic and ethical approaches in works by authors Liz Braswell, Louise Murphy, and Jane Yolen, it poses a central question: does merging Holocaust and fairy-tale narratives enhance understanding or hinder respectful remembrance? The article scrutinises subliminal storytelling in Holocaust tales, highlighting varied authorial approaches, from Braswell's cryptic social conflict to Murphy's and Yolen's use of vague references within a Holocaust-aware context. Exploring how Holocaust tales navigate the balance between fantasy and historical context, it analyses recontextualisation in the works of Braswell and Murphy. Braswell's ‘Beauty and the Beast’ engages with social conflict and history by transforming the curse, while Murphy's ‘Hansel and Gretel’ reframes the oven as a symbol of safety. Additionally, the article addresses the ethical dimensions of representing the Holocaust in children's fiction, emphasising the use of fantasy to enhance accessibility and emotional engagement. Analysing works like Yolen's ‘Briar Rose’ and Braswell's ‘Beauty and the Beast’ illustrates how these narratives navigate historical representation complexities, aiming to preserve awareness and prompt moral reflections. The article argues that fantasy elements not only render the Holocaust accessible to contemporary readers but also provide a unique avenue for emotional engagement, transcending the limitations of historical facts.

War Is Back in Post-Heroic Europe: Change and Continuity in the Relationship Between the Armed Forces and Society

Since war is back in Europe, societal perceptions are shifting. Terms such as “warfighting,” “whole of society,” and “total defence force” are becoming more prevalent. There is a growing recognition of the military’s importance and heightened appreciation for soldiers, while taboos on weapon manufacturing and warfighting are disappearing. To what extent, how and with what implication have societal attitudes surrounding the armed forces changed in recent years? This article examines this question through exploratory empirical research of military, political, and public communication items, including media accounts and speeches. This reveals both change and continuity in what had been called post-heroic Europe: both a more pro-military stance and the persistence of one-dimensional narratives of conflict, military intervention and soldiers. This is strategically and ethically problematic. While fairy tale narratives dehumanize both opponents and “our” soldiers, demanding them to be superhuman, a tragic narrative better captures the human reality of war.

Специфика реализации семиперсонажной схемы на материале карельских народных сказок

Series of Karelian fairy tales have been documented and analyzed, revealing their intricate structural, compositional, and plot elements. This study delves into connections embedded within these fairy tale narratives. Employing a typological approach, the article scrutinizes representative protagonists, examining the etymologies of their names, the descriptions of their characters, and the motivations behind their actions. This analysis is conducted primarily within the context of the Russian fairy tale tradition. Through a thorough examination of the Karelian fairy tale repertoire, the study identifies stories featuring unjustly persecuted girls and women, as well as fairy tales with unique protagonists such as the “younger brother Tukhkimus” and the “saboteur” Syöjätär and her variants. These tales exhibit distinctive characteristics when compared to the Russian fairy tale tradition. The analysis is grounded in V.Ya. Propp’s structural-semiotic approach, particularly his seven-person scheme of the fairy tale plot. The study effectively demonstrates how ethno-cultural and geographical factors of the region influence the specificities of these narratives.

STUDY OF BEHAVIORAL MODELS OF PERSONALITY IN UKRAINIAN AND RUSSIAN FAIRY TALES

STUDY OF BEHAVIORAL MODELS OF PERSONALITY IN UKRAINIAN AND RUSSIAN FAIRY TALES

MULTIMODAL UKRAINIAN BRAND NARRATIVE: SEMIOTICS, STRUCTURE, ARCHETYPES

The aim of the study is to identify the structural-narrative, semiotic, and archetypal properties of the Ukrainian multimodal narrative as a semiotic space of secondary signification and social mythologization. The data for analysis include slogans and promotional multimodal videos (video narratives) of the Ukrainian brand “Золотий вік” (Golden Age). Based on multimodal research, semiotics and advertising mythology theories, as well as the theories of cultural archetypes, and utilizing multimodal, narrative, narrative-semiotic, and archetypal analysis, in conjunction with conceptual integration tools, the article has achieved the following key results. The Ukrainian brand narrative is a multimodal discursive construct formed by a combination of multiple semiotic codes realized through verbal and non-verbal sign systems via auditory and visual channels. The modules are integrated through multimodal video narratives, constructing a semiotic world integrated with the secondary signified “love” and the associated concepts that replace the denotative meaning of the brand as a jewelry company and its products as ornaments. The secondary signified is verbalized through slogans, visualized through plots, voiced by background songs or voice-over narrators, and encoded by cultural codes in their intertextual and archetypal aspects. Multimodal video-narratives, featuring various characters, narrative plots, and formal-narrative structures, exhibit isomorphism with respect to the possible worlds they construct, archetypal images, motifs, and characters, as well as analogous narrative plots with differing levels of reduction in structural narrative elements. The verbal module, based on a slogan, as well as invariant auditory accompaniment common to all video narratives – the song “Love” and off-screen narrative, supports a hermeneutic code because it contains a key metaphor based on the slogan and peripheral metaphorical components that reveal the conceptual features of its target space. The audio-visual module forms a proaritic code based on the narrative plots of advertising clips in a three-component possible world: extratextual frame narrative, textual pseudoreal narrative, and fairytale narrative. The cultural code is realized through various multimodal resources. The slogan and the brand name include explicit references to the source intertext based on the song. In the video narratives, techniques of interdiscursivity are used, combining elements of melodrama, a romantic story, and a fairy tale, as well as references to archetypal images, motifs, and elements of the archetypal cyclical time. Central to these are the archetypal images of dreams, magic, hearts, and motifs of the magical helper-giver, the journey, crossroads, and magical transformation of those who receive a branded gift. The main archetypes are those of gold and the ring-circle, associated with the symbolism of the sun. Cyclical temporality, associated with mythological time, is actualized by recurring motifs and underpins the unity of love and preciousness from the perspective of the connotations of “eternity” – as eternal spiritual and material values. The semantic code of connotations is related to the secondary signification meanings, which associate the brand’s products with “embodied” love and is based on all the brand’s narrative modules, constructing its social mythology. The symbolic code is based on archetypal symbols and the core value of the brand in its implicit opposition to values foreign to the brand, appealing to the motivational value of “love and the need for belonging” in the hierarchy of human motivations. The perspective for further research is the analysis of the pragmatics of multimodal narratives in Ukrainian brands.

Myths and tales about the animals of the Oirats of Xinjiang

The subject of the study is the fabulous folklore of the Oirats of Xinjiang. The object of the study is the specificity of mythological and fairy-tale texts about animals. It should be noted that the fabulous folklore of the Oirats still remains little known to domestic researchers, despite the fact that attempts to study it began in the middle of the last century. The study of Oirat folklore is especially relevant for domestic Mongolian studies, since it is historically connected with the folklore tradition of Russian Kalmyks and Altaians. The author examines in detail such aspects of the topic as the study of fairy-tale texts and the identification of common artistic means, which allows us to establish and explain the general systemic connections between these ethnolocal folklore traditions. The research methods are comparative analysis and the method of interpretation of fairy tale text. For the study of fairy tale narrative, this approach turns out to be potentially heuristic: both directions mutually determine each other, revealing multidimensional connections of the once unified folklore tradition. Myths and tales about animals represent the ancient genre of fairy tale folklore of the Oirats of Xinjiang. The main contribution of the study consist in the statement the myths and tales' content retains mythological elements associated with the archaic ideas of the ethnos about living beings of the world around them. Particular attention is paid to figurative language, rich in expressive poetic expressions, an abundance of figurative means, and a large volume of vocabulary of the original language of the Oirats. All this testifies to the preservation of the fairy-tale-mythological fund and performing tradition of the Oirats of Xinjiang. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that during the analysis of fairy tales and myths about animals as a special genre, it was established that there is no allegory in the content of the archaic animal tale of the Oirats of Xinjiang, despite the fact that its main characters are animals. According to archaic views, man believed that animals were once people. Therefore, in many ways, the animal world was perceived as a reflection of the human world, and the morals of animals were equated with the same qualities of humans.

Fairy tale therapy for children of war

The article highlights the possibilities of using fairy-tale therapy by parents, legal guardians, socionomic sphere specialists in the process of providing support and assistance to children during the war. The purpose of the article is to define the content of fairy-tale therapy and create an author’s fairy tale, which is focused on pedagogical and psychological assistance to children affected by military operations. To achieve the goal, mainly theoretical research methods were applied: study, analysis and generalization of special psychological and pedagogical literature in order to identify the investigated problem. It is emphasized that a therapeutic fairy tale heals a person’s soul, as it carries out powerful psychological work at the subconscious level. In order for the fairy-tale narrative to acquire a therapeutic character, it must reflect the child’s problem. The process of creating an author’s therapeutic fairy tale helps relieve tension in stressful situations, contributes to the constructive experience of emotions, develops communication skills, imagination, and distracts from difficult feelings. It was concluded that fairy-tale therapy is a unique method of treatment of mental health disorders caused by military actions, as children find echoes of inner experiences from their own lives in fairy tales.

Запрет и последствия его нарушения в контексте ценностной системы волшебной сказки

This paper aims to reflect on the diversity of the interdictions which are valid in the world of a magic fairy tale, and the consequences caused by violating them. As it turns out, except for taboos expressed in an explicit way, the character of the studied narratives does not follow the rules of folk ethics of the word, and unconsciously contributes to his own or someone else’s physical metamorphosis, or disregards generally accepted moral norms. As a result, he destroys the cosmic order. However, a violation of an interdiction is a necessary condition for the attainment of sociocultural maturity by the protagonist, which is formed through the process of positive initiation. The interpretative context of these considerations takes into account the value system specific to magic stories, reflecting the worldview of a traditional society. The source material used is representative of fairy tale narratives taken from several collections of Russian folk prose.

Visions of Red Riding Hood: Transformative Bodies in Contemporary Adaptations

Gothic and sexual elements are embedded within both Charles Perrault’s and the Brothers Grimm’s tellings of “Little Red Riding Hood”. When popular culture turned to fairy tales from the late 20th century forward, reimagining them as gothic tales for adults, “Little Red Riding Hood” provided a particularly rich setting. In particular, these adaptations exploited the false binaries within these tales while making more visible the sexual abuse and recovery encoded in the narratives. This essay will first explore the particular gothic qualities within this tale, as well as the shapeshifting nature of the four characters. After establishing how the figure of Red, as well as her motifs, are key to ensemble fairy-tale narratives, I will examine adaptations that directly explore the sexuality and agency of a young woman, as she resists both predators and her family legacy. However, the last section will note that monstrosity, like victimization, can be resisted. Overall, this essay interrogates contemporary film and television adaptations of this tale, with a particular interest in the messages of recovery and agency in these new versions.

Marked Feat of Allusions in Roman Mikhailov’s Fairy Tales Collection «The Berries»

Artistic experiments are characteristic of the latest Russian literature. The experiment allows not only to create the effect of a dialogue with the classics, but also to build a new model for assessing reality. The poetic world traditionally has two highways of balance: this is time and an artistic space. The poetics of postmodernism is focused on the creation of the new within the framework of the transformation of the existing. Aesthetic experience processed by postmodern authors has signs of allusions, reminiscences, quotations, open hints. Roman Mikhailov's prose is a unique example of playing with literary codes, cultural and historical stereotypes. This happens both at the level of form and at the boundary level of content. The new literary reality of assessing the present in the mode of fairy-tale narrative is being implemented in R. Mikhailovs collection The Berries (2019). Lately reseachers have been finding little interest in the collection, there are hadly any works found in the public domain that would concern the analysis of language, style, author's manner of narration, compositional framework, genre variations. Thus, the study in line with the assessment of the typology and poetics of Roman Mikhailov's fairy tales appears to be relevant. The methodological content of this work correlates with the one of a receptive and hermeneutic nature. Labeling of allusions in the collection The Berries is carried out for the purpose of visual differentiation of meanings. The scope of postmodern writers meanings expands to rhizome. Consequently, the text stops being only a formal plane, but becomes a paradigmatic sign system. The collection of fairy tales The Berries contains texts of different years. However, they form a single artistic world with related plots. The literary experiment of R. Mikhailov's fairy tales focuses on the texts by Sh. Perrault, F.M. Dostoevsky, N.A. Nekrasov, I.S. Turgenev, N.S. Leskov, A.P. Chekhov; N. Pogodin's screenplay; V. Suteev's cartoon plots; V.S. Vysotsky's song structure. The range of allusions in this case is wide, while the integrity of the cycle remains impeccable. This material can be used in studies on the poetics of the latest Russian prose, as well as in the invastigations focused on Roman Mikhailovs works.

The Charisma of Fruits: From Greek Mythology to Genesis

Concerned with the representations of fruits in Greco-Roman mythology and Genesis, this paper first explores the various meanings of charis and its conceptualization, and their embodiments. It then addresses object agency, before questioning the possible propriety of certain fruits in visual and textual narratives to emanate and/or appropriate charisma. To do so, the paper presents a discussion of the linguistic and conceptual mutability and malleability of the term ‘charis’ and its conceptualization into charisma, as well as its possible manifestations or translations in fruits, thus transforming the latter into (accidental) actors. Finally, this study provides an exploratory reflection on the ambiguity and metamorphic aspect of “charismatic” fruits in the context of myths and the Genesis narrative represented in the visual arts, and their translation into fairy tale narratives and modern advertising campaigns.

FOLKLORE ELEMENTS IN THE WORKS OF К. SATYBALDIN

In the article the author studies folklore elements that are present in modern Kazakh literature, namely, fairy-tale motifs in the plays of the Kazakh playwright K. Satybaldin. The article analyses several plays by the playwright and provides an example of analysis of works by other writers. The aim of this study is to identify the particularities of the use of folklore elements. The materials of the study are the famous play by K. Satybaldin “The Beauty Ayagoz”. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that the author reveals the peculiar and complex patterns of the author’s appeal to folklore, the author also defines the motif of fairy-tale narrative, where K. Satybaldin uses the plot, motifs and style of epic poems, creatively recycles them and creates fascinating optimistic plays.The author chose comparative and comparative and descriptive methods as the main methods of research. In this paper, the author found that the peculiarity of the author’s writing lies in his stylistic skill. К. Satybaldin has a unique style of writing that includes the principles of phrasing, ways of conveying emotions and expressiveness. К. Satybaldin’s heroes always use a romantic dialogue full of feathered phrases. This is what distinguishes him from other writers.The findings during the study make it possible to establish that the playwright turns to folklore heritage with a desire to show his idea. By seeing familiar characters or recognizing plots, the reader crosses the first threshold of familiarity, which guarantees loyalty to the text later on. Thanks to folkloric elements, the reader is more easily exposed to a new text and familiarity with a new artistic world. This article is intended for students, undergraduates and teachers of Philology.

Fairy Tale Narrative in the Media Environment: Structure and Functions (on the Example of Motivating YouTube Content)

The article puts forward and substantiates the concept of motivating content. On the example of the four most representative videos posted on the You-Tube video platform, its specific features are considered. So, firstly, the specifics of the composition of the analyzed videos are revealed, it is proved that their structure goes back to the narrative archetypes of a fairy tale. Secondly, the order of the narrative elements is determined and the key features of the emerging syntagmatic plot unity are described. Thirdly, the functional specificity of motivating content has been established, which lies in the fact that it performs a psychological and therapeutic function (motivating content helps in resolving a personal psychological crisis, temporarily replacing real psychological help). The method of functional analysis of the fairy tale narrative, developed by V. Propp, serves as a research method. This method is based on the principle of decomposition of a work, which allows you to divide the material into its component parts and analyze the invariant features of the text series. The novelty of the work lies in the fact that it presents a functional analysis of narrative matrices found in media works that perform a psychological and therapeutic function in society. As a result of the study, the author concludes that MC is useful both for the blogger (increase in the audience) and for the viewer (the first, but temporary, psychological and therapeutic help).

Авторская стратегия детективных романов Г. Флинн (на материале романа «Острые предметы»)

This article is devoted to the analysis of the author’s strategy in the novel “Sharp Objects” by the foremost modern American writer G. Flynn, who renews the tradition of the American detective. The aim of the article is to reveal the specifics of the author’s strategy in the novel. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time the suspenseful detective novel “Sharp Objects” is comprehended in the stated aspect. As a result, we have established the following: firstly, “Sharp Objects” is composed by the model of a detective novel with its canonical features (hero-investigator, criminal, victims). Secondly, the writer modifies the model through a number of techniques that eventually form her author’s strategy: she deconstructs gender roles (women turn out to be criminals, the heroine-investigator finds herself in the position of a victim); transforms the fairy tale narrative (the relationship between a mother and a daughter repeats the plot collision of the fairy tale “Rapunzel” by the Brothers Grimm); the theme of physical and psychological violence comes to the fore; Freudian motifs play a key role in depicting family relationships, the image of the main character and plot development.

Plaga czerwonych potworów. Reprezentacja Hołodomoru w książce obrazkowej „Tell Me a Story, Babushka” Caroli Schmidt i Viniciusa Melo

The plague can be symbolically interpreted as a deadly ideology that led to the deaths of several million people and the subsequent erasure of these traumatic events from collective memory. This paper takes a closer look at the literary representations of the Holodomor, the Great Famine of 1932–1933, in English-language children’s literature of the Ukrainian diaspora, using the example of the first edition of the picturebook Tell Me a Story, Babushka (2019) by Carola Schmidt, an author of Ukrainian-Brazilian origin, illustrated by Vinicius Melo. The article highlights the relationship between the two complementary narrative voices that Schmidt and Melo use to familiarize their young readers with the Holodomor. The article also shows that despite the generalizations present in Tell Me a Story, Babushka, Schmidt and Melo succeed in bringing the subject matter of the Holodomor to young readers without being misleading. Moreover, due to the universal nature of the fairytale narrative and the educational values it conveys, the picturebook can provoke extratextual discussions about the Great Famine and Ukrainian culture.

One of the thorny kind: The Red Queen’s organic armour in Alice through the Looking Glass (2016)

Alice through the Looking Glass() the sequel toAlice in Wonderland() reconfigures Carroll’s tyrannical dictator the Queen of Hearts/Red Queen. The film offers insights into her formative years in the style ofMaleficent() andCruella(), explaining the circumstances that have shaped this formidable diva. Fictional character transformations are often signposted through style and this study addresses the role that costume design plays in the reimagining of this monarch. Clothing and adornment frequently highlight plot and character transitions in fairy-tale narratives and the significance of Colleen Atwood’s ‘organic armour’ garment in fabricating a more nuanced shading for Carroll’s gaudy caricature will be examined. The Red Queen’s affinity with abrasive textures in Carroll’s description of her as ‘thorny’ is a catalyst for fusions and juxtapositions of both smooth and textured materials in this dress, amplifying the interplay between organic and inorganic surfaces in this film.Alice through the Looking Glassand Atwood’s design specifically, not only serves as a conduit for the Red Queen’s transitioning identity, but also provides a platform to appraise ideologies inherent in material surfaces within fairy-tale narratives.

There's No Place Like Home(land) in American and Soviet Fantasy Cinema of 1939: The Wizard of Oz and Vasilisa the Beautiful

There's No Place Like Home(land) in American and Soviet Fantasy Cinema of 1939: <i>The Wizard of Oz</i> and <i>Vasilisa the Beautiful</i>

Dino Buzzati's 50th death anniversary: an appraisal of medicine and infectivology's influence on his literary production.

This paper, in the 50th anniversary of the author's death, examines the overall impact and influence of medicine, in particular of infectious diseases, on the literary production of Italian writer and novelist Dino Buzzati (1906-1972). Analysis of literary sources and historical study. Buzzati's literary world is great fun for the reader, being both intriguing and anxiety forming at the same time. One finishes reading his books only to discover the one truth which overturns everything that seemed to be true. In particular, in his short stories, which stem mostly from episodes taken from everyday life, the plot suddenly comes to life. The atmosphere becomes surreal, and in a moment the incredible happens. Behind the apparent lightness of the fairytale narrative there lies hidden the important issues addressed by the author. He uses the hospital as a metaphor for a categorised life, in which we are at risk of no longer being masters of ourselves, in which we suffer a continuous steady drip that makes us head downwards day after day, floor after floor. We will come back up, but not today, tomorrow perhaps, or at the latest, the day after tomorrow. Corte on the second floor hopes, and screams to give strength to his hope, that he will soon return to the top, towards the seventh floor.

UNIVERSAL COMPONENTS OF SYMBOLIC IMAGERY IN NARRATIVE OF UKRAINIAN AND ENGLISH FAIRY TALES

Introduction. The paper focuses on the study of fairy-tale narrative with special interest to the universal components of the folk tale symbolic imagery. Semiotic (symbolic) facet in the Ukrainian and English fairy-tales’ narrative analysis contributes to further investigations inthe field of linguosemiotic, linguocultural, literary-semiotic and other cross-disciplinary studies.Purpose. The paper aims at revealing of common archetypes or prototypes of the symbolic images and motifs in Ukrainian and English fairy tales.To achieve this purpose we have applied the integrative methodology based on methods of contextual interpretation analysis, intertextual analysis, elements of the method of comparative analysis of Ukrainian and English fairy tales, as well as elements of the methods of archetypaland narrative analyses.The major results refer to the identifying the similar symbolic properties of the Ukrainian and English fairy tales. We have revealed and described the most widespread symbolic images: a symbol of forest as a boundary space between fantastic worlds and, at the same time, a netherworld, associated with the universal motif of initiation; a symbol of tree manifested bythe symbolic images of oak and apple tree acting both as the character’s assistant and mediator between the worlds; an ambivalent symbol of apple involving the archetypal motifs of eternal youth, earthly desires, temptations and transition to another world. Next recurrent motif is thepersonage’s transformation into an animal or a bird, metaphorically manifesting the archetypal idea of ancestors’ reincarnation in totems. The motif of marriage on animals is no less common in tales together with the motive of the totem assistant. Both the bird and the horse belongto universal mythologems, the former associating with a symbol of the soul and metonymically performing a function of the content of the soul, and the latter acting as an assistant and a mediator between the worlds. The archetypal symbols of fire and water are symbolically reinterpretedin fairy tales as the border between the worlds, manifestations of the idea of good and evil, symbols of purification as well as in paradigms of ambivalent images appearing as the metonymicmanifestations of the basic symbols.Conclusion. Constant images of fairy tales symbolize the unity of man with nature, with animals and birds, elements of being. The fairy-tale symbols appear as a system organization, the paradigm of images, with numerous metonymic and metaphorical derivatives from basic symbols, as well as the syntagmatic symbolic links between archetypal symbols and associatedsymbolic motifs.