Fabulist

A fabulist is a writer or teller of fables, typically short stories that feature animals or inanimate objects as characters and convey a moral lesson. In broader usage, the term can also describe someone who tells or fabricates stories, sometimes in a pejorative sense as a liar or mythmaker.

The word comes from French fabuliste, from Old French fabule, related to fable, and ultimately from Latin fabula, meaning story or tale. The English form appeared in the 17th century, initially referring to a writer of fables. Over time it acquired a secondary sense of someone who tells improvised or fantastical tales, not necessarily anchored in truth.

In literary tradition, fabulists are associated with the art of moral storytelling. Classical examples include Aesop, famed for animal-centered fables, and later writers such as Jean de La Fontaine and Ivan Krylov, who popularized the form in their respective cultures. Fables typically aim to illuminate human behavior or social norms, often through allegory or satire, with concision and clarity that make the lesson readily apparent.

The term also connects to broader movements in modern literature, where fabulism or fabulist elements appear in works that blend myth, dream, and psychological insight to explore truth through storytelling. In contemporary usage, a fabulist may be praised as a skilled teller of fables or criticized as an unreliable narrator or fabricator, depending on context.

See also: fable, fabulism, parable, allegory, storyteller.