Diachronic Overview оf European Classic Fairy-Tale Evolution

Abstract

The paper elaborates on the European fairy tale literature as an outstanding literary phenomenon This genre has evolved for a long time, and it is considered within the national cultural code. A fairy tale is an inexhaustible source that allows us to realize the national and cultural identity within various linguistic cultures; to deliver the ethnic, historical, and national flavor. The paper provides a diachronic consideration of the evolution of the European fairy-tale literature, exemplified by Italian, French, German, English, and Spanish magical stories. A special emphasis is made on Italian folk tales and fables as a prototypical genre of the European fairy-tale literature. The research describes the development stages of the European fairy-tale literature, the history of its generating, and resulted in identifying specific features of this genre in European literature, in discovering national differences in the European fairy tale, in defining development patterns for European magical story plots. The authors have specified the role of a fairy tale as a unique sociocultural phenomenon, its contribution to the development of European society. As a result of the research there have been analyzed similarities and differences between European literary fairy tales. It has been proven that European magical stories have a lot in common, which make them accessible and understandable to people of other linguistic cultures. The obtained results confirm the fact that a fairy tale mirrors the language picture of the world and cultural identity of the nation.