Tales from around the world

African tales

There is a rich, fertile legacy of folklore from Africa. On this vast continent, folk tales and myths serve as a means of handing down traditions and customs from one generation to the next. The storytelling tradition has thrived for generations because of the absence of printed material. Folk tales prepare young people for life, as there are many lessons to be learned from the tales. Because of the history of this large continent, which includes the forceful transplanting of the people into slavery on other continents, many of the same folk tales exist in North America, South America, and the West Indies. These are told with little variation, for the tales were spread by word of mouth and were kept among the African population. In addition to the folk tales, there are myths, legends, many proverbs, tongue twisters, and riddles. In the African folk tales, the stories reflect the culture where animals abound; consequently, the monkey, elephant, giraffe, lion, zebra, crocodile, and rhinoceros appear frequently along with a wide variety of birds such as the ostrich, the secretary bird, and the eagle. The animals and birds take on human characteristics of greed, jealousy, honesty, loneliness, etc.

The Storyteller not only uses his imagination through fantastic adventures which are able to capture the audience, but he also uses them to develop a moral and promote a certain behavior suggested by his customs. He also aims to keep the cultural heritage of a certain tribe, including therefore their own moral, religious and social values.

Officially the Storyteller is a man, sometimes a grandmother or great-grandmother, in any case he must be old because the Storyteller must also hold the wisdom accumulated over the experience of long years so to pass to whoever is willing to listen and to hear.

Latin American tales

The modern short story is a work of art, relatively short, with an elaborate structure, an interest in time and space, having an emotional impact, and a consciousness of style. The traditional elements of short stories, like the introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and epilogue are not always observed by modern authors. Their works are more flexible in structure, more expansive in their content and theme, and more expressive in style.

It builds an intense emotional climate in which all the elements of the story converge to create the climax, and finally, the falling action and conclusion.

The short story’s internal structure determines the significance of the different elements, both technical and artistic (themes, symbols, images), which distinguish its genre from other narrative forms. Point of view is instrumental in the unfolding of the narrative as it determines the climate in which the story takes place.

Due to the brevity of a short story, the writer must make every word count. The introduction creates the interest for the reader and the emotional tone of the narrative. The author sets the scene, describes the atmosphere, determines the time, and gets the characters moving.

Asian tales.

Chinese storytelling has an unbroken history of more than a thousand years. This professional art has survived in oral transmission to our present time, and therefore offers a unique territory for research in oral tradition. The profession is threatened by the modern society and the arrival of modern media-technology, but this situation also offers new possibilities for preserving the arts that are still alive today. The project investigates the interplay between oral and written traditions in the Chinese popular culture and the role of the new electronic media for this culture.

Australian tales

Australian folklore, its traditions, customs and beliefs are based on both Indigenous and also non-Indigenous people's knowledge and experience of history in Australia.

The Indigenous Australians' knowledge base goes back tens of thousands of years. Indigenous knowledge, law, and religion, which provide the basis of their folklore, are rich in stories of the land, its animals and plants

Some Indigenous stories, like the bunyip - man-eating animals that live in water-holes, swamps and creeks - have been absorbed into wider Australian folklore and identity.

Some of Australia's folklore remembers the relationship between Europeans and Aboriginal people and this is reflected in Australian language and writing.