El philosophical tale it shares the characteristics of folk and traditional tales, but is distinguished from other tales by its voluntarily philosophical objective. The main characteristics of a story traditional:
- The story integrates wonderful or extraordinary elements.
- The short story is a popular genre, whose primary purpose is to teach a moral while distracting the reader.
- The story follows a particular structure.
- The story is a story or a fiction.
The philosophical tale should provoke the reflection of the reader. For this, the author makes a critique of the current situation. The philosophical tale also belongs to the literature of fun and the literature of ideas. An author of a philosophical tale can resort to several techniques literary to achieve this double objective. Examples of philosophical stories are parody, caricature, irony, black humor.
In the XNUMXth century, the story philosophical know a real success. This is largely explained by the context of the time. The censorship in force in printing and bookstores prevented free expression. The philosophical tale was a means of turning around censorship and criticizing the established order and government affairs.
Furthermore, the Century of the lights he wanted to spread his ideas to the general public and he succeeded thanks to philosophical tales. They were not aimed so much at the elites, but at people sometimes with few means cultural and little knowledge of literature.