Morphology of the Folktale: Second Edition

by V. Propp
translated by Laurence Scott
edited by Louis A. Wagner

University of Texas Press, 1968
eISBN: 978-0-292-74809-5 | Cloth: 978-0-292-78391-1 | Paper: 978-0-292-78376-8
Library of Congress Classification GR550.P7613 1968
Dewey Decimal Classification 398.210947

ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC

ABOUT THIS BOOK

This book is the classic work on forms of the European folktale.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Vladimir Propp was born in Petersburg, April 29, 1895. In 1932 he was called to a position at the University of Leningrad and went on to make major contributions to Russian folklore studies, comparative mythology, and the classification of folklore genres. His international fame is closely tied to the contributions he made to the structural analysis of folklore in Morphology of the Folktale.

REVIEWS

Propp's work is seminal...[and], now that it is available in a new edition, should be even more valuable to folklorists who are directing their attention to the form of the folktale, especially to those structural characteristics which are common to many entries coming from even different cultures.

— Choice

It was primarily Claude Lévi-Strauss who made Propp's book popular outside the small circle of Western Slavicists: he immediately recognized the importance of Propp's methodology not only for the study of the fairy-tale, but generally for the study of narrative folklore. [Lévi-Strauss] expressed his admiration for all those”'who for a long time have been Propp's successors without knowing it."

— Times Literary Supplement

Morphology will in all probability be regarded by future generations as one of the major theoretical breakthroughs in the field of folklore in the twentieth century.

— Alan Dundes

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface to the Second Edition
Introduction to the Second Edition
Introduction to the First Edition
Acknowledgements
Author's Foreword
I. On the History of the Problem
II. The Method and Material
III. The Functions of Dramatis Personae
IV. Assimilations: Cases of the Double Morphological Meaning of a Single Function
V. Some Other Elements of the Tale
- A. Auxiliary Elements for the Interconnection of Functions
- B. Auxiliary Elements in Trebling
- C. Motivations
VI. The Distribution of Functions Among Dramatis Personae
VII. Ways in Which New Characters Are Introduced into the Course of Action
VIII. On the Attributes of Dramatis Personae and their Significance
IX. The Tale as a Whole
- A. The Ways in Which Stories Are Combined
- B. An Example of Analysis of a Tale
- C. The Problem of Classification
- D. On the Relationship of Particular Forms of Structure to the General Pattern
- E. The Problem of Composition and Theme, and of Themes and Variants
- F. Conclusion
Appendix I. Materials for a Tabulation of the Tale
Appendix II. Further Techniques of Analyses
Appendix III. Schemes and Commentary
Appendix IV. List of Abbreviations
Appendix V. Comparative Chart of Tale Numbers

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