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Vladimir Propp (1928). By Grace Chadwick. Early Life:. Full name: Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp Born: April 17, 1895, in St. Petersburg in the Russian Empire. He majored in Russian and German Philosophy at University.
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Vladimir Propp (1928) By Grace Chadwick
Early Life: Full name: Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp Born: April 17, 1895, in St. Petersburg in the Russian Empire. He majored in Russian and German Philosophy at University. His Morphology of the Folktale was published in Russian in 1928 and inspiredClaude Lévi-Strauss and Roland Barthes. After 1938, he shifted the focus of his research from linguistics to folklore.
Theory: Vladimir Propp analyzed many of his country's folk tales and identified common themes within them. He broke down the stories into morphemes (analyzable chunks) and identified 31 narratemes (narrative units) that comprised the structure of many of the stories. By breaking down a large number of Russian folk tales into their smallest narrative units - narratemes - Propp was able to arrive at a specific structure used for the plot lines of fairytales. By analysing types of characters and particular kinds of action, Propp was able to arrive at the conclusion that there were thirty-one generic narratemes in Russian folk tales.
Theory: He also concluded that all the characters could be resolved into 8 broad character types in the 100 tales he analyzed: The villain — struggles against the hero. The dispatcher —character who makes the disappearance of the important object known and sends the hero off on their journey. The (magical) helper — helps the hero in the quest. The princess or prize — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. The hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain. Her father — gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. The donor —prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object. The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess. False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.
Criticisms: Propp was criticised for his lack of sensitivity to subtle story elements such as mood and deeper context.