Folk Literature

1. Folk Literature 6th grade English/ Language Arts AG Cox Middle

2. Folk Tales • Folk Tales were told over generations and the details changed with each retelling. • Folk Tales were told not only to entertain, but also to communicate the shared ideas of a culture. Often deal with heroes, adventure, magic, or romance. • Example: A story in which a baker becomes a town’s hero.

3. Fables • Brief stores or poems, usually with animal characters, that teach a lesson or moral that is stated directly at the end. • Often feature animal characters. • Example: A story in which a turtle beats a rabbit in a race, laughing all the way.

4. Myths • Fictional tales that explain the actions of gods and heroes or explain the actions of gods and heroes or explain a natural phenomena. • Also composed orally and passed down from generation to generation. • Mythology- collection of myths. • Example: A story about the Roman god Apollo.

5. Legends • Stories often based on fact. However, over time, details in legends move further away from actual factual events. • Example: A story describing the enormous Paul Bunyan and the footprints he made to create 10, 000 lakes.

6. Folk Literature Vocabulary • Oral tradition: passing along of stories by word of mouth. • Universal theme: a message about life that can be understood by people of most cultures. • Personification: giving a nonhuman human-like characteristics. • Irony (ironic): surprising, interesting, or amusing contradictions. • Hyperbole: an exaggeration or an overstatement. • Dialect: the form of language spoken by people of a particular region or group. • Allusion: a reference to a well known person, event, place, literary work, or work of art.