Folklore motives and their reinterpretation in the work of American writer L.F. Baum

It is generally considered that the genre of the literary fairy tale in Europe expressed itself amply in the age of romanticism and used folklore imagery and motifs, as many other literary genres. But the folklore of Native Americans is also known to be ignored by authors in the USA. At the beginning the European folk tales served as the basis for the literary fairytale in the United States. Nonetheless, by the 20th century the authors had decided to create their own national fairy tale tradition. The article deals with the problem of folklore motifs reshaping in the collection entitled “American Fairy Tales” by L.F. Baum. There are some recurrent folklore motifs in the fairy tales: the motif of the forbidden door, the magical object, etc. At the same time, imagery of natural objects typical of North America (corn fields, huge cities with apartment houses) add some new traits to the national variant of the fairytale.