| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺北教育大學 === 語文與創作學系碩士班 === 102 === The construction of characters and plot exercises considerable influence on the effect of fairy tales, especially when the target audience is children. The arrangement of the functions of characters and plot is most important for drawing children into the story in order to introduce ethics and positive notions imperceptibly. This study focused on the patterns of plot and the ideologies presented in the 30 stories of the Chinese Fairy Tales Picture Book Series (“繪本中國童話”, published by Yuan-Liou Publishing Co., Ltd.). The connection between the character arrangements and the narrative structures of these stories was analyzed using the actantial model proposed by Algirdas Julien Greimas and the narrative logic proposed by Claude Bremond.
This paper consists of 5 chapters. Chapter 1, “Introduction”, describes the general background information, the research purpose, the scope of study, the research questions and method, the reference, and the value of research. Chapter 2, “The Development and Change of the Chinese Fairy Tales Picture Book Series”, investigates the composition of content and pictures of the 30 stories, as well as the story types. As these stories were selected from the Collection of Chinese Folk Tales, in order to provide a better understanding of the development and the orientation of these stories, this chapter illustrates a clarification on the differences between picture book and folk story in terms of form and definition, which is followed by the type categorization of the 30 stories. Chapter 3, “The Actantial Model in the Chinese Fairy Tales Picture Book Series”, adopts Greimas’s actantial model to analyze the 6 kinds of characters that initiates functional events: the subject, the object, the sender, the receiver, the helper, and the opponent. The analysis proposes one of the important approaches to gain insights from the stories through a better understanding of the functions of the characters. Chapter 4, “The Narrative Logic of the Chinese Fairy Tales Picture Book Series”, connects the “events” in a story based on the sequence. The form of sequence includes primary sequence, end-to-end series, enclave and coupling, which can be used to understand the assortment of events within a work. As it is noticeable that many of the oral folklores share similar plots, “narrative logic” is useful for analyzing the narrative structure and the pattern of sequence. Furthermore, the evaluation of the success or failure (the improvement or deterioration) that a sequence has brought—the “narrative circle” in narrative logic—can serve as ways to explore the orientation and development of the plot. Finally, Chapter 5, “Conclusion”, provides overviews on the development and change of the Chinese Fairy Tales Picture Book Series, the characters and the narrative structures of the 30 stories, constructing a picture of the value of the series in the fields of literature, education and society.
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