Anti-fairy tale

{{Short description|Fairy tale with a tragic ending, rather than a happy one}}

File:Fischer und Frau.jpg]]

An anti-fairy tale, also called anti-tale, is a fairy tale which, unlike an ordinary one, has a tragic, rather than a happy ending, with the antagonists winning and the protagonists losing at the end of the story. Whereas fairy tales paint a magical, utopian world, anti-fairy tales paint a dark world of nastiness and cruelty. Such stories incorporate horror, black comedy, mean-spirited practical jokes on innocent characters, sudden and often cruel plot twists, and biting satire.The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales: A-F, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Jdx2fhPM1XIC&pg=PA50 article "Anti-fairy tale", p. 50]Catriona McAra, David Calvin, Anti-Tales: The Uses of Disenchantment, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, May 25, 2011, {{ISBN|1443830550}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=nQcrBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA4 p. 4] The term ({{langx|de|Antimärchen}}) was introduced by André Jolles in his Einfache Formen (1930).André Jolles: Einfache Formen. Legende, Sage, Mythe, Rätsel, Spruch, Kasus, Memorabile, Märchen, Witz. Niemeyer, Halle (Saale) 1930 (Forschungsinstitut für Neuere Philologie Leipzig: Neugermanistische Abteilung; 2) [http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/joll001einf01_01/joll001einf01_01_0008.php p. 242].

Examples of anti-fairy tales include "The Fisherman and His Wife", and "The Swineherd". A recent example is Fabien Vehlmann's graphic novel Beautiful Darkness.[https://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/06/20/why-beautiful-darkness-is-the-ultimate-anti-fairytale/ Why Beautiful Darkness Is The Ultimate Anti-Fairytale]

The term is also used to refer to remakes of traditional "happy" fairy tales into "unhappy" ones.