Chapter 5: Traditional Literature

            Every time I think of traditional literature I think of “once upon a time” and as a little girl long time ago, I never believed that it wasn’t real. Traditional literature’s main purpose is to capture imagination and capture faith. The best stories were told because of imagination- stories born of the oral tradition. Stories were handed down from generation to generation just by word of mouth. These traditional stories have come from many countries and many cultures from around the world. All of these stories have similarities from one country to another. People from around the world have reshaped through multiple retellings to fit the needs of the audiences of a particular place or time. There are six categories of traditional literature:

A Fable is a brief story in which the moral is explicitly stated. Universal lessons are learned that reflect the morals and values of a person within a culture.

A Myth explains aspects of culture or how something came to be in the natural world. Supernatural animals and people become a part of the mythical world.

A Legend is a traditional narrative based on historical truth. Usually of courage, heroes, and/or unusual occurrences.

Religious Stories are of important events and people of different religions. Usually involving peace, hope, faith, forgiveness, and/or salvation.

Tall Tales are exaggerated humorous stories of characters that perform impossible acts. Tall tales are usually based on frontier settlement and hard work.

Folktales are perhaps of a fairy human, or animal tale passed down by word of mouth. Folktales are universal truths that reflect the values of the time.

            A good teacher I believe has a lot of traditional literature in her classroom. She allows her students to explore the world of traditional literature and inspires creativity and imagination through every child. Children love stories and if I can capture their interests through fables, myths, legends, tall tales, religious stories, and folktales then I know I’m doing my job right. As a teacher, I believe we need to create an environment where students will love to read and having a library in the classroom will definitely stimulate their minds to keep reading.