The Story of Harap Alb by Ion Creangă
Povestea lui Harap Alb
"The Story of Harap Alb" , written by Ion Creangă, is a cult fairy tale, published in the magazine "Convorbiri literare" from 1877.
The cult fairy tale is a broad narrative species, with numerous characters carrying symbolic values, with action involving the supernatural / fabulous and subject to stereotypes, which depict the path taken by the hero to mature. The conflict between good and evil always ends with the victory of the forces of good, and the characters present fulfill a series of functions in relation to the hero (antagonist, helpers, donors). Spatial and temporal landmarks are vague, indeterminate. There are compositional clichés, more precisely numbers and magical objects, and the style is an elaborate one, combining narration with dialogue and description.
The narration is done in the third person by an omniscient narrator, but not objectively, as it often intervenes through comments or reflections. Compared to the folk tale, where narration predominates, the cult tale involves combining the narrative with dialogue and description. The narrative is dramatized through dialogue and has a fast pace by reducing digressions and descriptions. The dialogue fulfills, as in the theater, a double function: it supports the evolution of the action and the characterization of the characters.
The theme of the fairy tale is represented by the triumph of good against evil, and the chosen narrative motives are the superiority of the little one, the journey, submission by cunning, work, the unmasking of the evildoer (Spain), punishment, marriage.
The action takes place linearly, the sequence of narrative sequences being made by chaining. The coordinates of the action are vague, through the timelessness and aspatiality of the convention: "Amu cica was once in a country of thieves ..." .
The transition from real to fabulous is thus made from the beginning. Spatial landmarks suggest the difficulty of the hero's adventure, who must leave the known world and go "beyond" , which, symbolically, represents the transition from immaturity to maturity.
In the fairy tale, there are compositional clichés or typical formulas: the initial one: "Amu cica was once ..." and the final one: "And it lasted for years, and now it still lasts" - but the author innovates the formula from the beginning, attributing it to someone else's words ( "cica" , meaning "it is said" ), and the final formula is attributed to the social reality. They mark the entrance and exit of the fabulous. The median formulas: "God forbid, as the word in the story is much longer" make the transition from one narrative sequence to another and keep the reader's attention awake.
The path of maturation by the hero involves a chain of actions or moments of the subject: an initial situation of balance (the exhibition).
