THE DIACHRONIC OVERVIEW OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPEAN CLASSIC FAIRY TALE: ADAPTATION ISSUES

Prof. Lola Bobodzhanova & Mamleeva Alfiya, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Russia;     Abstract: This paper discusses the ways a classical fairy tale has been changing over the centuries. Some academicians have researched the ways how tale-tellers interpreted and rewrote traditional fairy tales. Traditionally fairy tales were told and written by adults for adults, however, later they became associated with children’s literature. The work focuses on fairy tale adaptations by Giambattista Basile who is known for a seventeenth-century fair-tale collection of Neapolitan fairy tales titled “The Tale of Tales, or Entertainment for Little Ones”, also known as “Il Pentamerone” published posthumously in two volumes. The work, which had been neglected for a long time, received much attention as the Brothers Grimm praised it highly as the first national collection of fairy tales. The given research provides the diachronic overview of the development of European classic fairy tale and its adaptations. The conducted research explores the works of Giambattista Basile, their various adaptations related to contextual cultural changes, the shifts they may have caused in the villain characters’ image. The contextual cultural changes were identified with the help of critical reading strategies.

Key words: children’s fairy literature, folklore fairy tale, European fairy tale, national and cultural adaptation, contextual cultural changes, villain characters, interpretations, critical reading strategies