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Symbolic Narrative, Psychological Growth, and Aesthetic Education in Fairy Tales

Author(s)

Yiming Liu

Affiliation(s)

Capital University of Economics and Business, Beijing, China

Abstract

Fairy tales, through fantastical scenarios, stereotypical characters, and symbolic imagery, transform children's fears, desires, conflicts, and developmental experiences-which are difficult for them to express directly-into perceptible narrative forms. This paper focuses on the symbolic narratives, psychological development mechanisms, and aesthetic values of fairy tales. Based on a review of relevant findings in narratology, analytical psychology, developmental psychology, and aesthetic education, it analyzes the composition of the symbolic system in fairy tales, the internal mechanisms by which symbolic narratives influence children's psychological development, and the basic path of transforming emotional experience into aesthetic judgment in fairy tale aesthetic education. Research shows that fairy tales primarily promote children's emotional regulation, self-cognition, empathy, and value judgment through symbolic encoding, emotional projection, role identification, conflict rehearsal, and meaning reconstruction. Existing research has established major pathways such as psychoanalysis, socio-cultural studies, and educational empirical research, but problems remain, including insufficient theoretical integration, limited empirical research, weakened child subjectivity, and insufficient cross-media research. Future research will focus on the fairy tale education mode of cultivating children's self-interpretation and creating beauty, and strengthen cross-cultural comparisons, longitudinal tracking and multimodal studies.

Keywords

Fairy Tales; Symbolic Narrative; Psychological Growth; Aesthetic Education; Children's Literature

References

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