From Aesop’s to Esus’s Fables: Folktales and Creation of the literary work of Esus Fables as Edutainment Books

Abstract

This research aims to study the literary work of Esus Fables by Sergeant Pichit Kachatpanchon composed of 4 books (36 stories). This study focuses on the roles of folktales in literature. The creation of this literary work as edutainment communicates both medical knowledge and entertainment to readers. The research shows that folktales and popular Thai literature, as well as international  literature, are reproduced in forms of cartoon whose contents are changed in many aspects such as: 1) using the existing plot but changing details; 2) reproducing some parts of the existing plot by changing its details and adding incidents and characters; 3) combining the existing plot with  the new one; 4) sorting motifs out in order to create a new story from it; 5) adding characters to emphasize health communication; and 6) cutting any motifs irrelevant to communication on medicine and health. This work of literature is created by the connection between folktales and medical knowledge by tying in medical knowledge with cartoons and explanations as well as using a folktale formula in narration. The researcher also found out that folktales play important roles in creating literature such as providing materials for content creation, story-telling methods, and the use of folktale’s features as appropriating tools for health problem communication. This makes the literary work of Esus’s Fables become a “modern fable” about public health knowledge in contemporary society.