Traditional stories
Traditional
stories,
expressed as myth, legend, folklore,
fairy tale,
and fable,
are used interchangeably in common speech as a synonym for popular fiction.
Similar terms include anecdote, parable, and fairy stories. In the academic circles of
literature, religion, history, and anthropology, these terms are important jargon to identify
and interpret stories more precisely. Not every story will fall into exactly
one category. Some stories belong in multiple categories and some stories do not
fit into any category.
A fable is a
brief, succinct story, in prose or verse, that features animals, plants, inanimate objects,
or forces of nature
which are anthropomorphized (given human qualities), and that
illustrates a moral
lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be expressed explicitly
in a pithy maxim.
A fable differs from
a parable
in that the latter excludes animals, plants, inanimate objects, and
forces of nature as actors that assume speech and other powers of mankind.
A parable is a
brief, succinct story, in prose
or verse, that illustrates a moral
or religious
lesson. It differs from a fable
in excluding animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as
actors that assume speech and other powers of mankind.
An apologue is
a brief fable or allegorical story with pointed or exaggerated details, meant
to serve as a pleasant vehicle for a moral doctrine or to convey a useful
lesson without stating it explicitly. It is exactly like a parable except that
it contains supernatural elements, often the personification of animals or
plants. Unlike a fable, the moral is more important than the narrative details.
An anecdote is
a short tale
narrating an interesting or amusing biographical
incident. It may be as brief as the setting and provocation of a bon mot. An anecdote is always based on
real life, an incident involving actual persons, whether famous or not, in real
places. However, over time, modification in reuse may convert a particular
anecdote to a fictional piece, one that is retold but is "too good to be
true". Though sometimes humorous, anecdotes are not jokes, because their
primary purpose
is not simply to evoke laughter, but to reveal a truth more general than the
brief tale itself, or to delineate a character trait or the workings of an
institution in such a light that it strikes in a flash of insight to their very
essence.
All these information has been provided from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_stories