The Russian folklorist Vladimir Propp published his first book, Morphology of the Folktale, in 1928. Since it was translated to English, in 1958, it has become an international bestseller and is well known as a major theoretical work in oral literature. Now, Anatoly Liberman has selected seven essays and three chapters from his later books which together reveal the full range of Propp's thought in Theory and History of Folklore. This will help readers see that his work is essentially a theory of narrative. Included are the famous essay by Claude Levi-Strauss about Propp and Propp's response to Levi-Strauss's Critique.
"This book will give Propp's admirers in the English-speaking world a whole new perspective on this distinguished scholar's contribution to folkloristics. Liberman provides the necessary background in terms of Russian/Soviet intellectual (and political) currents to place Propp's work in a new light. No student of structuralism in folklore can afford to miss Liberman's anthology." Alan Dundes
Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp (Russian: 袙谢邪写懈屑懈褉 携泻芯胁谢械胁懈褔 袩褉芯锌锌; 29 April 1895 鈥� 22 August 1970) was a Soviet formalist scholar who analyzed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements.
Zanimljivo, pou膷no. Ali se na kraju vi拧e od polovine knjige svelo na prepri膷avanje ili citiranje odlomaka razli膷itih bajki. Ako ne to, onda bi krenuo zanimljivu temu (recimo porijeklo nekog motiva, simbola...) i onda samo prekine. Navode膰i da je to zadatak neke druge nau膷ne discipline. WHY YOU DO THIS TO ME?!
Nema veze. Bajke 膰u zauvijek voljeti. Znala sam da su mra膷ne zahvaljuju膰i necenzurisanoj verziji bajki Bra膰e Grim na kojoj su me nau膷ili 膷itati- sada znam za拧to i zbog 膷ega su mra膷ne.
ALI PREVI艩E PREPRI膶AVANJA BAJKI. Knjiga se mogla zvati 'Zbornik Afanasijevog zbornika bajki i ostali'.
Continuation from Propp's Morphology of the Folktale (1928). Furthers his attempt to make folklore a social science, establishing generic laws through empirical research and historical/ethnographic analysis. There's a good section on the wondertale, a type of folktale defined as follows:
"A wondertale begins with some harm or villainy done to someone (for example, abduction or banishment) or with a desire to have something (a king sends his son in quest of the firebird), and develops through the hero's departure from home and encounters with the donor, who provides him with a magic agent that helps the hero find the object of the search. Further along, the tale includes combat with an adversary (the most important form is slaying a dragon), a return, and a pursuit. Often this structure is more complicated, for example, when the hero is on his way home and his brothers throw him into a pit. Later he escapes, is subjected to a trial by difficult tasks, and becomes king and marries, either in his own kingdom or in that of his father-in-law. This is the compositional core of many plots in brief outline" (102).
Propp argues the wondertale originally derives from social institutions, especially as sacred mythical narratives told as part of initiation rituals. They are bound up with tribal identity and tend to focus on its ideas about death.
鈥淢yths are not only components of life; they are part of every individual person. To take away a man鈥檚 tale is tantamount to taking away his life. Such myths have inherent economic and social functions, and this is not a local phenomenon, this is a law鈥ithout its myths a tribe would not be able to perpetuate itself鈥� (120).
The wondertale emerges when severed from its sacred roots. This "fall," Propp urges, shouldn't be regarded as a bad thing.
鈥淗owever, the wondertale devoid of its religious functions is not inferior to the myth from which it was derived. On the contrary, exempt from religious conventions, it finally emerges into the free air of artistic creation, now motivated by different social factors, and begins to live a life of its own鈥� (121).
The change Propp doesn't necessarily approve of is when the wondertales are written down, which marks their appropriation by an elite, their meanings altered to correspond with ruling ideology (a claim humorously exaggerated by Propp's Soviet loyalties). Literature and even oral epic (Homer, etc.) is a sophistication of the stories and ways of life of common people.
Propp is best known, of course, for his Morphology of the Folktale, but this invaluable collection sets that in the broader context of his work over a long and productive career.
His longevity is all the more remarkable given that he was negotiating throughout the lurches of official Stalinist ideological positions. This collection allows the reader to see both the changing limitations imposed on Propp and other scholars (nationalist perspectives restricting his discussion of foreign scholarship at one point, for example), and the resultant somewhat tortuous through-line of his thinking as it developed within those constraints. It is a strength of Anatoly Liberman's 'Introduction' that it brings out both aspects well.
Liberman is less successful in his consideration of Marxism on Propp, because he sees it solely in those state ideological terms. Certainly it is clear that Propp was responding to direct state pressures - inevitably, given the realities of Stalinist suppression of scholars elsewhere - but he was also drawing something more interesting from it. The book does allow anglophone scholars to begin picking at those questions, which are important and have not gone away. (I'm intrigued by Propp identifying the new development of Soviet folkloristics with Gorky's 1934 speech to the All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers, for example, because this had a direct political purpose in the turn towards the Popular Front politics that later folklorists would do well to consider more closely).
The book also contains L茅vi-Strauss's famous critique of Morphology..., and the editorial matter is clear and impressive in its exposure of the French scholar's slightly slippery and evasive misrepresentations. Propp's robust response is included in the book, and it is revealing to read that alongside the unjustly injured tone of L茅vi-Strauss's 'Postscript' that followed.
Great book in terms of aggregating an inventory of common themes in fairy tales; however, the analysis provided was disappointing and simplistic. Perhaps at the time this was the only analysis of this type, but with emergence of Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung writings on the same topics, Propp's interpretations of the themes lack depth . The concepts of archetypes, hero's journey, and psychological significance of symbols, have evolved since the time of Propp's writings; this work is more interesting as an example of the early and systematic research on the topic of fairy tales. Main disappointments are with the way Propp interprets the symbolism of devouring, and the role of the dragon/serpent. He simplifies the symbolism of devouring to death and rebirth of the hero, but leaves it at that. Campbell's and even Jordan Peterson's analysis of death and rebirth is much deeper, compared to Propp's. Also, author's disdain for religion and dismissal of ancient rituals as superstition only weakens the entire work further. To approach these subjects without recognizing deep significance of religious thought and practices, and how they connect to the concept of "story" and "journey", is to miss the point.
The book is too academic. Everything could be easily reduced to 100 pages. I tormented the book for a whole week. A very heavy book. And quite controversial. The author deduces a certain theory, and as proof of his innocence, he constantly refers to another folklorist, a certain Fraser. Well, how can the words of one author serve as proof of the correctness of the other? This is some kind of scholasticism. But the work is considered fundamental in the field of studying the structure of a fairy tale. My rating is 3 stars, The text might be formulated more friendly to readers.
Le radici storiche dei racconti di fate di Vladimir Propp 猫 un compendio ampio e ricco di nozioni in merito ai motivi fiabeschi tutto da studiare. Molto utile per seguire storicamente come la fiaba segue le variazioni di morale e viceversa.
Out of ten how much did I read (okay maybe I was skimming by the end) this whole thing only to realise after a frustrated google search that Propp's character types are in the volume before this???? Unfortunately for my brain, it's a ten.
Wy艣mienita analiza. Bardzo ciekawe wnioski. Musz臋 poczyta膰 jakie艣 naukowe recenzje, bo na pierwszy rzut oka ci臋偶ko si臋 przyczepi膰 do rozumowania autora. Cho膰 oczywi艣cie wiele pozostaje ukryte za kwesti膮 doboru przyk艂ad贸w.
Propp is the guy who reduced a certain kind of folktale (the wondertale) to thirty-one plot points that always appear in the same order, though not every one appears in every tale. This book includes essays and chapters from later books by Propp. It also includes L茅vi-Strauss's essay on Propp and Propp's rejoinder.
The introductory essay is a model of knotty prose (and only 81 pages!), but it's worth reading for a portrait of Soviet scholarship. It also sums up Propp in one marvelous observation: "Not a single joke or verbal twist can be found in his entire published heritage; [not:] even [in:] the book on laughter [Problems of Laughter and the Comic:]."
Un saggio meraviglioso, capace di entrare nel vivo della fiaba e di sviscerarne i pi霉 intimi segreti. I continui riferimenti politici sono causati probabilmente dalla paura della censura sovietica, ma ci貌 non toglie il fascino a quest'opera ricca di significato e di contenuti. Apprezzatissimo