Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

Get access

Fable
(1,633 words)

1. Concept

A fable is typically a short narrative text. Its fictional events involve ‘non-human’ but anthropomorphized animals, plants, or objects of inanimate nature and culture. These have human faculties of consciousness, language, and action. A defining feature of the fable is a reference of practical application, the “moral” or “lesson” (Latin fabula docet). Set out in advance as a promythium or declared afterwards as an epimythium, the moral either …

Cite this page
Zymner, Rüdiger, “Fable”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_019066>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20180126



▲   Back to top   ▲