Children story classics: Comparison of versions in the East and West

Abstract

Children's Literature, especially the fairy tales which are full of fantasy and hyperbolic nature have been enjoyed for centuries and their influence lasting. The stories also reflect the values and ethics a culture and society intend to pass down on the next generation. It is observed that there exist common themes across different cultures. In some cases, there are even similar stores being told in different parts of the world. It would be interesting and worthy to investigate and research on these similar stories. Furthermore, even for the stories of similar themes, texts from different cultures and historical periods, appeared different in their storytelling, literary presentation, rhetoric devices etc. The current project attempt to examine and compare children stories from both East and West, from different cultures and historical periods. The classics children stories (the Cinderella story for example) would be the main focus. The purpose of the current research is that through comparing the similarities and/or differences of the stories to find the diverse values, concepts, cultural and socio-historical displays in those versions of a master story, to further acquire a deeper understanding of literary texts from a broader cultural, historical, and literary perspectives.