Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp (russian: Владимир Яковлевич Пропп; – 22 August 1970) was a
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
folklorist and scholar who analysed the basic structural elements of
Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible structural units.
Biography
Vladimir Propp was born on 29 April 1895 in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
to an assimilated Russian family of
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
descent. His parents, Yakov Philippovich Propp and Anna-Elizaveta Fridrikhovna Propp (née Beisel), were
Volga German
The Volga Germans (german: Wolgadeutsche, ), russian: поволжские немцы, povolzhskiye nemtsy) are ethnic Germans who settled and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov a ...
wealthy peasants from
Saratov Governorate
Saratov Governorate (russian: link=no, Саратовская губе́рния, ''Saratovskaya guberniya'', Government of Saratov), was an administrative division (a ''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and the Russian Socialist Federative Sovie ...
. He attended
Saint Petersburg University
Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the G ...
(1913–1918), majoring in Russian and German
philology
Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...
.
[Propp, Vladimir. "Introduction." ''Theory and History of Folklore.'' Ed. Anatoly Liberman. University of Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1984. pg ix] Upon graduation he taught
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
and
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
at a secondary school and then became a college teacher of German.
His ''Morphology of the Folktale'' was published in Russian in 1928. Although it represented a breakthrough in both
folkloristics
Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...
and
morphology
Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to:
Disciplines
*Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts
*Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...
and influenced
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss (, ; 28 November 1908 – 30 October 2009) was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair of Social Anthro ...
and
Roland Barthes
Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popular ...
, it was generally unnoticed in the West until it was translated in 1958. His morphology is used in
media education and has been applied to other types of narrative, be it in literature, theatre, film, television series, games, etc., although Propp applied it specifically to the wonder of fairy tale.
In 1932, Propp became a member of
Leningrad University
Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the G ...
(formerly St. Petersburg University) faculty. After 1938, he chaired the Department of Folklore until it became part of the Department of Russian Literature. Propp remained a faculty member until his death in 1970.
Works in Russian
His main books are:
*''Morphology of the tale'', Leningrad 1928
*''Historical Roots of the wonder tale'', Leningrad 1946
*''Russian Epic Song'', Leningrad 1955–1958
*''Popular Lyric Songs'', Leningrad 1961
*''Russian Agrarian Feasts'', Leningrad 1963
He also published some articles, the most important are:
*The Magical Tree on the tomb
*Wonderful Childbirth
*Ritual Laughter in folklore
*Oedipus in the light of folklore
First printed in specialized reviews, they were republished in ''Folklore and Reality'', Leningrad 1976
Two books were published posthumously:
*''Problems of comedy and laughter'', Leningrad 1983
*''The Russian Folktale'', Leningrad 1984
The first book remained unfinished, the second one is the edition of the course he gave in Leningrad university.
Translations into English and other languages
*''Morphology of the Tale'' was translated into English in 1958 and 1968. It was also translated into Italian and Polish in 1966, French and Romanian in 1970, Spanish in 1971, and German in 1972.
*''Historical Roots of the Wonder Tale'' was translated into Italian in 1949 and 1972, Spanish in 1974, and French, Romanian and Japanese in 1983.
* ''Oedipus in the light of folklore'' was translated into Italian in 1975.
*''Russian Agrarian Feasts'' was translated into French in 1987.
Narrative structure
According to Propp, based on his analysis of 100 folktales from the corpus of
Alexander Fyodorovich Afanasyev, there were 31 basic structural elements (or 'functions') that typically occurred within
Russian fairy tale
A Russian fairy tale or folktale (russian: ска́зка; ''skazka''; "story"; plural russian: ска́зки , translit = skazki) is a fairy tale from Russia.
Various sub-genres of ''skazka'' exist. A ''volshebnaya skazka'' s._He_identified_these_31_functions_as_typical_of_all_fairy_tales,_or_wonder_tales_[skazka">олше́бн_...
s._He_identified_these_31_functions_as_typical_of_all_fairy_tales,_or_wonder_tales_[skazkain_Folklore_of_Russia.html" "title="kazka.html" ;"title="олше́бн ...