THE PATH OF METAMORPHOSIS: PATTERNS IN THE LITERARY FAIRY TALE TRADITION
Abstract
This study is an attempt to bring together, through an analysis of Narration/narrative strategy, the styles and structures of narrative fictions which influence, or are influenced by, the Fairy Tale. In the following sections, I analyze narrative strategies of tales through an examination of the functions and structures of the protagonist, the quest, and the metamorphosis of the protagonist in selected fictions. The tales in this study include representative early Greek Romances, Renaissance Tale Collections, Traditional Fairy Tales, Kunstmarchen, and Metafictional Kunstmarchen. Despite their variety, they all have these elements in common: a protagonist or hero/heroine pair; a quest; a trial or task; supernatural aid or opposition; rewards or punishments; a metamorphosis of the protagonist. In addition, the majority of these tales are resolved in such a way that the protagonist(s) is/are returned to the initial situation at the beginning of the narrative or enjoined to begin a new quest. I outline how the Traditional Fairy Tale seems to accomplish these functions in a linear pattern while many Kunstmarchen follow a circular pattern. In both, however, the protagonist is changed in some basic, fundamental respect. These conventions and motifs of such a structural form have themselves become a body of material for writers of fiction to draw upon. The conventions of the Fairy Tale tradition are being used as a common ground, as a familiar movement, in contemporary fiction. I believe that the conventions of the Fairy Tale, expressed by the functions of the protagonist, his/her quest, and his/her metamorphosis have become the conventional element in the Literary Fairy Tale. Even though the Literary Fairy Tale appears at least as early as Apuleius' The Metamorphoses, it is still a developing form. This seems to me to be an aspect of romantic and fantastic literature which has not been closely examined. I intended to use this study as a preparation for an analysis of metafiction.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Literature
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