On The Ritual Dimension Of Folk Fairy Tales

Folk fairy tales are works of social collective. They rooted in the collective life of the primitive society, and only against this background can they be interpreted. In this article, I argue that folk fairy tales are textual representations of the passage rituals. I take the European folk fairy tales as an example and try to demonstrate this point in three dimensions. First, folk fairy tales created a unique space-time, "the second world", which are the substitution of the dead world. Therefore, that the hero entered the fairy tales’ world in fact means a journey to the underworld, which was one of the most common themes in the primitive rituals. The fairy tales and ritual are consistent on this basic point, and second, their connection was further confirmed by the connotation of surreal images, originated from the collective representation and the totem worship. Third, the process of the passage rite, i.e.,the Separation Threshold-Aggregation, was reflected in the overall narrative structure. Furthermore, the folk fairy tales transformed the passage rite in its unique form, which in a meanwhile transcended the finitude existence of human beings. This also contributes to the reasons why the folk fairy tales are still popular in spite of the decline of the rituals.