Morphology of the Folktale (Publications of the American Folklore Society)

In this superior translation, it is now possible to bring the work of Vladimir Propp to a new audience in an affordable volume.

Propp tackled the kaleidoscopic tales of his homeland, Russia, searching for the "keys" - the literary and linguistic tropes and themes - powering Russian folklore. In his structuralist analysis of over 300 tales, Propp evolved a structuralist theory of the Russian folktale through which he was able to "pin down" essential facets that make the folktale/"fairy-tale" essentially "run." This is not to say that Propp ever declared that his was the "definitive" work or "Eureka" moment. He never made such a claim insofar as I am aware. But, by painstaking dis-assembly, Propp was able to tag, essentially, what make folktales work and what people expect them to do as evidenced by many points of delightful, familiar repetition of key ideas, personalities, and situations over the course of many tales. And, as a bonus, this edition also reproduces Propp's own charts and tables he used to segregate out the various elements he identifies. His work on what makes the prototypical literary/story-telling "villian" or "bad guy/girl" is especially superior.

His work has been widely criticized, especially by some Straussians and post-modernists, as too formulaic and unwilling to look "behind the page" for deeper layers of meaning. I find this a very silly position for the very simmple reason that this was not the focus of Propp's work and was never intended to be. Indeed, I am even more surprised because, in a post-modern or deconstructionalist analysis, Propp's work would seem to be an excellent first step to take in understanding the basic mechanics of folktale that will not only focus the work of other scholars, but possibly help as a guide to more complete understanding of culturally driven literary constructs. I do not see how one excludes the other, and would seem best working hand in hand.

I also think that Propp's work translates well in understanding the fairy tales and folk-tales of other cultures apart from the Russian. This is not to say that his forumlae will be perfect matches, but as I mentioned in the foregoing paragraph, it would be a good focus point or "launch pad" to enhance comprehension. Psychology and theory can come later!

It is, admittedly, a hard read and a dense read, quite dry as is strictly necessary for clarity in a difficult analysis. But for any lover or student of story-telling, it's an indispensible work.

Recommend without reservation.

I am a screenwriter. And I find that Vladimir Propp's structure works great for my stories. Have a look at it and try to apply it to any modern movie:

1.. A member of a family leaves home (the hero is introduced);
2.. An interdiction is addressed to the hero ('don't go there', 'go to this place');
3.. The interdiction is violated (villain enters the tale);
4.. The villain makes an attempt at reconnaissance (either villain tries to find the children/jewels etc; or intended victim questions the villain);
5.. The villain gains information about the victim;
6.. The villain attempts to deceive the victim to take possession of victim or victim's belongings (trickery; villain disguised, tries to win confidence of victim);
7.. Victim taken in by deception, unwittingly helping the enemy;
8.. Villain causes harm/injury to family member (by abduction, theft of magical agent, spoiling crops, plunders in other forms, causes a disappearance, expels someone, casts spell on someone, substitutes child etc, comits murder, imprisons/detains someone, threatens forced marriage, provides nightly torments); Alternatively, a member of family lacks something or desires something (magical potion etc);
9.. Misfortune or lack is made known, (hero is dispatched, hears call for help etc/ alternative is that victimised hero is sent away, freed from imprisonment);
10.. Seeker agrees to, or decides upon counter-action;
11.. Hero leaves home;
12.. Hero is tested, interrogated, attacked etc, preparing the way for his/her receiving magical agent or helper (donor);
13.. Hero reacts to actions of future donor (withstands/fails the test, frees captive, reconciles disputants, performs service, uses adversary's powers against them);
14.. Hero acquires use of a magical agent (directly transferred, located, purchased, prepared, spontaneously appears, eaten/drunk, help offered by other characters);
15.. Hero is transferred, delivered or led to whereabouts of an object of the search;
16.. Hero and villain join in direct combat;
17.. Hero is branded (wounded/marked, receives ring or scarf);
18.. Villain is defeated (killed in combat, defeated in contest, killed while asleep, banished);
19.. Initial misfortune or lack is resolved (object of search distributed, spell broken, slain person revivied, captive freed);
20.. Hero returns;
21.. Hero is pursued (pursuer tries to kill, eat, undermine the hero);
22.. Hero is rescued from pursuit (obstacles delay pursuer, hero hides or is hidden, hero transforms unrecognisably, hero saved from attempt on his/her life);
23.. Hero unrecognised, arrives home or in another country;
24.. False hero presents unfounded claims;
25.. Difficult task proposed to the hero (trial by ordeal, riddles, test of strength/endurance, other tasks);
26.. Task is resolved;
27.. Hero is recognised (by mark, brand, or thing given to him/her);
28.. False hero or villain is exposed;
29.. Hero is given a new appearance (is made whole, handsome, new garments etc);
30.. Villain is punished;
31.. Hero marries and ascends the throne (is rewarded/promoted).

This structure works for many stories and films. I do recommed the book for any writer and screenwriter especially for those who write modern fairy tales. It's a must!

This is an attempt to work out the underlying structural patterns (types of characters, what they do, how they are ordered) of Russian folktales, based on classic collections made in the nineteenth-century. If you are fortunate enough to have read a large collection of such stories -- preferably in translation, not "retold by ..." -- you will soon see the point of Propp's argument. Other European, and some non-European, traditions provide an almost equally good starting point, although the examples often are not so close as to be immediately convincing. Ideally, "Morphology of the Folktale" would be bound with at least a selection of the Russian folktales Propp analyzes, but this does not seem likely to happen.

Taken by itself, however, Propp's exploration is going to seem both dry and confusing. Try to imagine a book about the five-act structure of Shakespeare's tragedies being read by someone who had never seen or read a play before, and you may understand the problem.

Although Propp's exposition sometimes seems labored, he presents a convincing case that at least some oral prose narratives are built up of a stock of situations and events which can be slightly reordered, multiplied, and otherwise complicated, but amount to a "language" (a vocabulary, grammar, and syntax) of story-telling. This puts a new light on the problem of the distribution of folktales, and how they develop variants, two of the great issues of folklore studies in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Despite its origins in a single body of oral literature, Propp's methods have been applied to other literature with known or suspected oral roots, sometimes with slightly contradictory results. I know of at least two different Proppian analyses of "Beowulf," for example. This is due at least in part to Propp's attempt to introduce fine divisions between similar plot elements, which, again, seem to work better with his source material than with other groups of stories. (And "Beowulf" has long been recognized to include elements later found in European fairy tales, so the possibility of applying Propp's structures was more intriguing than revolutionary.)

In "Feud in the Icelandic Saga" (1983), Jesse Byock reviewed efforts to apply Propp's methods to the Sagas of the Icelanders, another body of prose literature supposed to be grounded in oral techniques. He argued that a different approach is needed to their formally realistic stories about personalities, and the functioning of society; which does not diminish the validity of Propp's approach to the wonder-tale.

This seminal work is essential for an understanding of structuralist theory and the theory of folklore. It differs from the psychological view of the folktale in its descriptive ability. This theory is based on objective description and sytagmatic conjunction and complementation. Because of that, it is more applicable and flexible than any psychological dissection. Also, two people will reach roughly the same conclusions with this method- something impossible with a psychological approach. This is excellent for anyone interested in attacking the down and dirty working parts of a narrative.

This is the first work to systematically characterize and describe a corpus of folktales. It includes a list of possible plot twists, in their correct chronological order for any story, and numerous examples from actual Russian fairy tales. This translation in particular reads well and makes a point of not departing from the text's literal meaning in any significant way. I would highly recommend this work for anyone interested in folktales or oral literature in general.