Genres & Forms
Fable
The fable is a short allegorical work of didactic content, mostly in verse, in which the characters are animals, plants, or objects embodying human traits and vices; the fable ends with a moral — a concise formulation of its conclusion. The genre reaches back to the semi-legendary ancient Greek Aesop, and its classic verse form was given by Jean de La Fontaine in France and Ivan Krylov. In Ukrainian literature the fable was developed by Hryhorii Skovoroda (the prose Kharkiv Fables), Petro Hulak-Artemovsky, Yevhen Hrebinka (The Bear's Court, The Fisherman), and especially by Leonid Hlibov, whose fables (The Pike; The Wolf and the Lamb; The Swan, the Pike and the Crayfish) became classroom classics, still relevant for their satire of injustice and social vice.
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Compare “Fable” with another term
Meaning, origins and distinction — side by side.
Distinction
Both are short allegorical genres with a moral, but of different register. The fable is usually versified, with animal or object characters, a sharp satirical plot and a directly formulated moral exposing a concrete human vice. The parable is a prose, solemn-philosophical narrative about people, with a hidden spiritual or ethical sense the reader must interpret themselves (the Gospel parables). The fable instructs by ridiculing; the parable instructs by prompting reflection.
