Abstract: The paper elaborates on the European fairy tale literature as an outstanding literary phenomenon This genre has evolved for a long time, and it is considered within the national cultural code. A fairy tale is an inexhaustible source that allows us to realize the national and cultural identity within various linguistic cultures; to deliver the ethnic, historical, and national flavor. The paper provides a diachronic consideration of the evolution of the European fairy-tale literature, exemplified by Italian, French, German, English, and Spanish magical stories. A special emphasis is made on Italian folk tales and fables as a prototypical genre of the European fairy-tale literature. The research describes the development stages of the European fairy-tale literature, the history of its generating, and resulted in identifying specific features of this genre in European literature, in discovering national differences in the European fairy tale, in defining development patterns for European magical story plots. The authors have specified the role of a fairy tale as a unique sociocultural phenomenon, its contribution to the development of European society. As a result of the research there have been analyzed similarities and differences between European literary fairy tales. It has been proven that European magical stories have a lot in common, which make them accessible and understandable to people of other linguistic cultures. The obtained results confirm the fact that a fairy tale mirrors the language picture of the world and cultural identity of the nation.

Abstract: This article is dedicated to the peculiarities of translating English and Chinese children's fairy-tales into the Russian language. Analysis is conducted on such key concepts as “children's fairy-tale”, “literary tale”, and “folklore tale”. The author examines the development stages of English literary tale and Chinese folk tale as independent genres. The main translation transformations used in translating English literary tales and Chinese folk tales into the Russian are explored. Special attention is given to the translation of fairy tales as a form of cross-cultural dialogue due to the fact that such works are loaded with the ethnic-cultural components. The conducted analysis reveals the major challenges face by the translators in dealing with fairy-tale literature. The conclusion is made that the translation of fairy-tale requires taking into account not only the unique genre as such, but also the ethnic-cultural distinctness of different linguistic cultures, foreign mentality, and cultural identity. The scientific novelty consists in the attempt to establish whether it is possible to achieve success in cultural adaptation of English literary tales and Chinese folk tales into the Russian language. The acquired results indicate that the major challenge in translation and cultural adaptation lies in conveyance of cultural uniqueness, as well as ethnic, historical and national flavor of the original texts; it is essential to remember that translation of children’s fairy tale is part of the process of cross-cultural communication, and the translator must become an intermediary of the dialogue of cultures. Fairy tales bear the cultural code of a particular ethnos, being the key to comprehension of the worldview of its representatives. It conveys the socially significant information, embeds moral values, illustrates ethnic-cultural peculiarities, and preserves cultural heritage.