Fable (Latin: fabula) consists of three components of narrative invention: recognition (anagnorisis), reversal (peripeteia), and suffering (pathos).
Recognition occurs when the reader identifies with or remembers a similar experience to a truth, event or character which the author has described. Recognition also occurs the moment a reader becomes aware of a truth not revealed earlier in the story. Recognition is change from ignorance to knowledge. Aristotle asserted that recognition scenes and reversal scenes can both bring the reader or audience delight.
Reversal is when the high and mighty are brought low or when the meek and lowly are elevated. It occurs when the expected course of events changes direction, to defy expectations.
Suffering is a state of emotional or physical pain or discomfort. It is the structural price of ignorance. It is not merely emotional distress added for dramatic effect; it is the physical or psychological friction that forces the transition from ignorance to knowledge.
In fable, suffering is swift, instructional, and usually self-inflicted. Because a fable is a condensed moral laboratory, suffering functions as the immediate, logical consequence of a character acting against nature or reason.
Read “The Dog and her Reflection” and examine it carefully. Identify recognition (anagnorisis), reversal (peripeteia), and suffering (pathos) in the fable. Create a post in the “fabula” category consisting of a paragraph identifying each of these and explicitly identifying the exact moment when the reversal occurs and how it triggers the recognition.
I have provided an example using The Cock and the Jewel.
The Logic of the Epimythium (Moral Formulation)
Fables can be punctuated with a moral formulation (epimythium). Editors concluded this fable of Aesop with, “It is very foolish to be greedy.” The epimythium in Phaedrus’s take is, “He who covets what belongs to another, deservedly loses his own.”
In praexercitamenta or the progymnasmata, a fable’s moral must logically flow from the suffering and recognition. If the dog suffered because he reached for an illusion out of greed, the moral must address contentment vs. illusion.
The same fable yields different moral angles depending on which part of the triad is emphasized:
- Focus on Reversal: “Gasping for the shadow, one loses the substance.”
- Focus on Recognition: “Greed blinds the eye to what is already possessed.”
Consider how the moral can be refashioned several different ways (e.g., “Beware of envy,” “Contentment is true wealth,” “Illusion mimics reality”). What revision of the final sentence could show that the dog’s internal recognition highlights one of these specific morals?
Apply the framework of the poetic triad (anagnorisis, peripeteia, pathos) by writing an original fable or modern adaptation that retains the core structural mechanics of “The Dog and His Reflection” while changing the agents, setting, and objects. Choose to emphasize a particular aspect of the moral. The story should feature the following elements:
- An agent possessing a real, sufficient good.
- An illusion or image of a greater good.
- An action of exchange driven by ignorance.
- A clear moment of Suffering (loss/regret).
- A clear moment of Recognition (understanding the error).
- A final Reversal from satisfaction to lack.
Create a post in the “fabula” category with your fable.
If you want to start with a simpler exercise:
Contract a fable to one or two sentences. Post the briefest version that still retains the substance.
Read The Oak and the Reeds or The Fox and the Crow. Rewrite the fable by expanding on the dialogue between the characters. Post your rewrite with dialogue.
Also see these alternative versions:
The Oak and the Reed
The Fox and the Crow
The Raven and the Fox