It isn’t just folk tales which share the same themes
Comparing stories from different cultures, we often find similar themes cropping up
Comparing stories from different cultures helps us to realise that same sorts of themes crop up in all over the world in all sorts of different cultures. And this is not limited to the area which we call ‘folk tales’.
I cut my teeth on Kipling’s Jungle Book and Just So Stories, and on Milne’s Winnie the Pooh stories. None of these are what you would call ‘folk tales’ in the conventional sense. But if you look into them, they all pick up little themes that you find in stories and mythology all over the world.
I’m sure that the similarities extend into other literature and other areas of culture. It should certainly make us realise that there aren’t any clear boundaries between ‘folk tales’ and other forms of culture.
Although the notion is impossible to prove (and may be purely imaginary) I like to think that this is evidence for Jung’s idea of a ‘collective unconscious’.
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