The word fairy designates both a narration of facts or imaginary adventures and the literary genre (above all oral) that relates the said stories. The story, can be short but also long. Whether it is to distract or edify, it carries with it a powerful emotional or philosophical force. Since the Renaissance, tales have been rewritten, giving rise over the centuries to a genre written in its own right. However, it is distinct from the novel, the news and the story of adventures by the acceptance of the improbability.

There are two practices of the literary genre of storytelling: oral and written. These two practices being differentiated by their mode of creation and diffusion as by their content, it is necessary to distinguish them.

Storytelling is a literary object that is difficult to define because of its hybrid and polymorphic nature. The literary genre, like the stories themselves, is the subject of studies calling on related knowledge, in the light of the human sciences, such as literary history, semiology, sociology, anthropology or psychoanalysis.

It should be noted that the term « storytelling » is sometimes used to describe the storytelling activity, regardless of the type of story (epic, legend, life story, news …).