beast fable

beast fable

      a prose or verse fable or short story that usually has a moral. In beast fables animal characters are represented as acting with human feelings and motives. Among the best-known examples in Western literature are those attributed to the legendary Greek author Aesop. The best-known Asian collection of beast fables is the Pañca-tantra (Panchatantra) of India.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Beast fable — The beast fable, usually a short story or poem in which animals talk, is a traditional form of allegorical writing [M. H. Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms (5th edition 1985), p. 6.] . It is a type of fable, in which human behaviour and… …   Wikipedia

  • beast fable — noun : a prose or verse fable or short story which usually points a moral and in which animal characters are represented as acting with human feelings and motives * * * beast fable noun A story in which animals behave like humans • • • Main Entry …   Useful english dictionary

  • beast fable — noun Date: 1865 a usually didactic prose or verse fable in which animals speak and act like human beings …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • beast epic — (beast fable, Tierdichtung)    Medieval beast epics, like the earlier fables of Aesop and others, were linked series of tales revolving around animals that talked and behaved like human beings. Often they were written in a mock epic style that… …   Encyclopedia of medieval literature

  • fable — fabler, n. /fay beuhl/, n., v., fabled, fabling. n. 1. a short tale to teach a moral lesson, often with animals or inanimate objects as characters; apologue: the fable of the tortoise and the hare; Aesop s fables. 2. a story not founded on fact:… …   Universalium

  • Fable — TOCrightA fable is a 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… …   Wikipedia

  • beast tale — ▪ literature       a prose or verse narrative similar to the beast fable in that it portrays animal characters acting as humans but unlike the fable in that it usually lacks a moral. Joel Chandler Harris (Harris, Joel Chandler) s Uncle Remus: His …   Universalium

  • beast tale — noun : a prose or verse narrative similar to the beast fable but usually without a moral …   Useful english dictionary

  • FABLE — FABLE, an animal tale (according to the most general and hence most widely accepted definition), i.e., a tale in which the characters are animals, and which contains a moral lesson. The genre also includes tales in which plants or inanimate… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • fable, parable, and allegory — Introduction       any form of imaginative literature (allegory) or spoken utterance constructed in such a way that readers or listeners are encouraged to look for meanings hidden beneath the literal surface of the fiction. A story (rhetoric) is… …   Universalium

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