A Broader and Deeper Idea of Fairy Tale: Reassessing Concept, Meaning, and Function of the Most Debated Genre in Folk Narrative Research
A Broader and Deeper Idea of Fairy Tale: Reassessing Concept, Meaning, and Function of the Most Debated Genre in Folk Narrative Research

Summary/Abstract: In this essay I try to argue a broader and deeper notion of fairy tale, beginning from an overview of some of the key terminologies and classifications devised and employed by folk-narrative research, passing through an etymological and semantic scrutiny of the word ‘fairy’, and developing, eventually, a structural analysis purposely framed within the historical-cultural context of the Irish tradition. What I attempt to let emerge – challenging to some extent the established concepts and theories – is a more comprehensive narrative category, characterised by a specific epistemological and ontological value, through which a sort of intermediate, neutral space is modelled, where boundaries are crossed and elements more or less heterogeneous are connected. Thus, the fairy tale can express a multi-dimensional worldview and the potential for a more complex idea of reality.

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