Aim. It is reasonable to support the opinion of scientists about the possibility and validity of the use of the term "meme" in a wider spectrum, considering a folk (traditional) fairy tale as a verbal and cultural unit (meme) of a complex process of narrative development. Metodology . The authors used descriptive, historical and comparative methods, the method of deduction and analysis. Results . Through the analysis of the history of the development of fairy tale texts, an assessment of one of the relatively modern theories of fairy tales is given (M. Drout, K. Distin and others) according to which a fairy tale is not always fully substantiated as a verbal-cultural unit (verbal meme) both within the framework of society and in the theory of narration as a whole. Based on the analysis of the evolution of the folk tale, the authors proved the possibility of considering it as a meme and a verbal pool of cultures. Research implications . The obtained results of the study significantly complement and expand the modern theory of fairy tales, contain new information for considering a number of issues within the framework of memetics and can be effectively used in theoretical courses in linguistics, psycholinguistics, linguoculturology and text interpretation.
Sheludko et al. (2025) studied this question.