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Folk Literature

  • Writer: amiller8979
    amiller8979
  • Feb 12
  • 3 min read

by Amber Miller

February 12, 2025


Many teachers and librarians use folktales in their classrooms or libraries as part of children's general story knowledge development and multicultural curricular efforts. Folk literature is an excellent choice for both of these purposes. Folklore helps us to understand how people of different times and cultures view themselves, the natural world, and the perils and rewards of life. From its beginning, folklore has been a way to understand and help humankind understand ourselves. The beauty of its language and its ability to capture the imagination, inform, and entertain gives folktales universal appeal. Further, the simple plot structure of folktales can help develop young children's early sense of story. For older students, studying the well-defined structure and common themes and archetypes of folklore can provide background for future study of other literature. 


Folklore greatly interests teachers, librarians, folklorists, and anthropologists who collect tales that authors of children's literature adapt. Psychiatrists represent another group interested in folktales; you will likely find many examples of Jungian archetypes in the literature you read.


Problems can arise with folktale use related to authenticity and origin. Consider the

award-winning picture book, Arrow to the Sun, by Gerald McDermott. This book is presented as a 'Pueblo Indian tale,' but did a community member write it? Were Pueblo people consulted as a part of the book's development? This Smolkin & Suina article highlights some of the concerns regarding the book. What should we do about folktales that do not have well-made source notes? Should we delete them from our curriculum, or is there a way to use them? Check out Debbie Reese's website, American Indians in Children's Literature, for her thoughts on the matter.



Building Literary Knowledge

Folk literature is an excellent tool for building literary knowledge. These stories are beneficial for introducing narrative structure because they often have direct, concrete plots, early disclosure of the conflict, brisk mounting action, and swift, just conclusions. Folklore also provides a promising avenue for exploring motifs: recognizable story elements (familiar characters, everyday events, standard actions, common objects). Motifs are a helpful jumping-off point for making connections across stories.

Finally, we can also use traditional literature to examine archetypes, such as frequently recurring images, story patterns, or character types that evoke associations in the reader. 


Examples of Archetypes in Literature

Situation Archetypes

  • The Quest: a search for someone or something that restores fertility (in some sense)

    to a wasted land

  • The Task: to save the kingdom, to win the fair lady, to identify themselves so that they may reassume their rightful position, the hero must perform some nearly superhuman deed

  • The Initiation: into adult life, new awareness and problems along with new hope for the community

  • The Journey: personal, similar to the quest above, or travelers as a microcosm of society

  • The Fall: from bliss to expulsion (Adam & Eve: Lancelot & Guinevere)

  • Death And Rebirth: parallels between the cycle of nature and the cycle of life

  • Battle Between Good And Evil

    A strong example of the hero archetype:                                                                                                               Tiny Feet Between the Mountains, written and illustrated by Hanna Cha
    A strong example of the hero archetype: Tiny Feet Between the Mountains, written and illustrated by Hanna Cha

 Symbolic Archetypes

  • light v. darkness

  • water v. desert

  • innate wisdom v. educated stupidity

  • heaven v. hell

  • haven v. wilderness


Character Archetypes

  • hero: this character is the one ultimately who may fulfill a necessary task and who will restore fertility, harmony, and/or justice to a community; read my review of Tiny Feet Between the Mountains and learn how to use it in the classroom

  • mentor: serves as a teacher, counselor, role model, or a father or mother figure, and teaches by example the skills necessary to survive the journey and quest

  • initiate: a young hero who, before the pursuit, must endure some training and ritual

  • scapegoat: an individual whose death, often in a public ceremony, excuses some taint or sin that has been visited upon the community

  • outcast: this figure is banished from a community for some crime (real or imagined) and is usually destined to become a wanderer

  • Earth mother: this character is symbolic of fulfillment, abundance, and fertility; she offers spiritual and emotional nourishment to those who she contacts

  • temptress: characterized by sensuous beauty, she is one whose physical attraction may bring about the hero’s downfall

  • damsel in distress: this vulnerable woman must be rescued by the hero; she may also be used as a trap by an evil figure to ensnare the hero

  • ideal woman: source of inspiration, often a physical and spiritual ideal for whom the hero has an intellectual rather than physical attraction

  • unfaithful wife: this woman, married to a man she sees as dull or distant, is attracted to a more virile or interesting man

  • trickster: an individual whose mischievous acts bring discomfort or loss to others without extensive repercussions to self


 
 
 

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