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Fabliau (plural fabliaux) is a term borrowed
from French to designate a special type of folktale.
It is, like the magic tale, oral-formulaic, but it does
not offer a given structure. It is told in a humorous,
rollicking fashion–a special discourse-- which suggests
a dark, somber, or derogatory view of humanity, for the
people encountered in the fabliau are steeped in mediocrity;
the may be liars and cheats, or be stupid and coarse,
and they hardly ever head for the glorious "happily
forever after ending" of the magic tale. Unlike
the magic tale, the world in the fabliau is realistic
and whatever magic appears may be a scam.
Some fabliaux are told to expose stupidity and corruption,
but others may be immoral . In many fabliaux, but not
all, the protagonists are tricksters who, for the sake
of their own gain, flimflam their way to prosperity and
power. Material gain is often the goal of these tricksters,
but equally important is the delight they take in tricking
those who fall for their scams. The tricksters feel jubilantly
triumphant and gleeful as they see their victims fall
prey to their cons–and the listeners often feel
equally gleeful–not realizing that they could be
the victims of the tricksters. If the humor of discourse
were removed, the stories would be grim tales of greed,
folly, or violence. The fabliaux, in some ways, turns
the world topsy-turvy, and it tells the listeners not
to take life too seriously for it can be utterly absurd.
N. Ingwersen |
