Abstract
The paper focuses on Ovidiu Bârlea’s analysis in the field of folk narratives, and particularly on A Small Encyclopedia of Romanian Folktales (1976) and Creangă’s Folktales (1967). The great Romanian folklorist’s contribution on displaying the features and functions of this narrative category is placed in the international scholarship and the important similar projects on folktales developed by European and North-American scholars. Despite the many professional challenges he had to face within the local academic world, Bârlea proved to have had all the necessary tools to accurately understand and explain the Romanian folktales as part of the international inventory. He was also passionate about tracing the folk texts which functioned as prototypes to the ones consecrated by Ion Creangă.
Keywords: Ovidiu Bârlea, folktale, Romanian folkloristics, international typology of folktales, Ion Creangă.
Cuvinte-cheie: Ovidiu Bârlea, basm, folcloristica românească, tipologia internaţională a poveştilor, Ion Creangă.