Folktales: some theses

The article suggests a general outlook of the structure and semantics of the folktale. Its text builds up its own worldview, its contents is perceived as the state of being, unlike “non-folktale prose” where the worldview has roots beyond the genre complex in question. The space of the folktale comprises separate loci, their peculiarities determined by the presence of these or those characters, as well as situations typical of these particular loci. The “Self and Other” dichotomy has the following registers: “family”, “society”, “myth”. Nevertheless, the mythic in folktales is that only by its origin. The folktale has nearly always a “social ladder”, as the protagonist’s adventures must end up “with a bonus”, either possessions (wealth), or marriage (spouse), or high status (investiture). The folktale regulates the code of the relations with the other world, as well as the code of success itself. If you behave yourself “right” in this world, the energy of the world will do you only “good”. Such “ethics” is based on the exchange of “gifts”, and the protagonist’s “right” behavior shaped in the folktale. The folktale is the first verbal form in the world recognized as imitation or fiction. Its poetic structure is greatly orientated toward creating an entertaining aesthetic effect which enables breaking off its worldview from that of actual beliefs and rituals. The formalized narrative structures of the folktale play an important part in the emergence of literature, as well as the literature of New Age.