Fabulism

Storytellers of the fabulist genre create and share fables – which are short stories with a moral message at the end of them. Usually, fabulist authors employ the use of allegory, and may even resort to prose or verse to get their point across.

In this article, we’ll be covering the history of the fable as a literary device, some key examples and usual inclusions of the genre. I hope that you’re ready for a delve through anthropomorphised animals (usually the main characters of fables), moral lessons and psychological growth of one of the most enduring forms of folk literature!

The history of fabulism

Ancient Greece is where an incredibly prolific writer, Aesop, came up with a staggering amount of fables. Of course, it may be that this is simply where a lot of them were written for the first time – as during the time period, students as well as being taught fables were also encouraged to come up with their own.

Examples of fables

It would be very unusual to speak to someone who hadn’t heard a fabulist story – with famous examples such as The Tortoise and The Hare (attributed as one of Aesop’s many fables), The Snake, The Farmer and The Heron (credited to the Hausa tribe), The Crow and The Pitcher (another Aesop) and many more!

A lot of fables feature animal characters, and end on a moral lesson. For example, in the fable of The Golden Goose, a farmer who one day finds that his goose lays golden eggs, soon becomes overrun by greed. He kills the goose, intent on a big payday but soon realises that he has destroyed his monkeymaker. The moral of the story is to be patient and beware of being too greedy, as it may be your downfall.

The state of modern fables

Due to their historical prevalence, many oral stories have later been transcribed to written forms within the genre. Getting their kickstart from fairytales, stories told before reading or writing was a widespread norm, fabulist tales were reenacted across cultures and generally similar, often rooted around a main moral message.

In more modern times, the fabulist genre has become intermeshed with a range of other different literature formats. Long associated with children’s literature, due to the previous use of the fabulist genre to teach the difference between right and wrong or a similar moral decision, it now is more commonly conflated with the magical realism genre as they overlap a lot with their inclusion of fantastical elements and allegory.

That was fab!

Beginning as an oral tradition, the fable has withstood the passage of time, becoming a way to tell deeply cultural and important moral stories. Like the students of Ancient Greece, it may be a good exercise to try to come up with your own!