The Morphology of the Magic Tale (Category Writing)

Recently I read this book by Vladimir Propp, which was published almost exclusively. 100 years ago. In this work, Vladimir attempted to analyze how fairy tales are arranged and how they can be compared with each other. Initially, in the book, he gives examples of classifications of fairy tales by plot or motifs, but quickly shows how inconsistent this is. In this regard, it is appropriate to recall Borges and his fictionalizationAccording to which animals are divided into

They belong to the Emperor; embalmed; domesticated; milk piglets; sirens; fabulous; stray dogs; included in this classification; running like crazy; innumerable; painted with the finest brush of camel hair; others; just broken a flower vase; similar from afar to flies. Further, the author proposes to go not from the plots and motives, but from their structure and components. This approach turns out to be a miracle of how good it is and continues to be used in other works, like Joseph Campbell's "Thousand-Face Hero". (I already had posture book). The book itself is quite concise, since the author carries most of the analysis of fairy tales into applications and individual works, and in the book he shares only the basics of his theory and conclusions. In the end, the book consists of 9 parts 1. History of the question The chapter where the author considers previous approaches to the projectile 2. Method and material Here the author outlines what he calls fairy tales, which he analyzes in his work. Further shows that it does not matter what characters are in the fairy tale - it is important what they do and what functions they perform. And the function is those actions of the character that are significant from the point of view of the plot. And then the main conclusions follow: the number of functions in famous fairy tales is limited, and moreover, they also always go in the same sequence. So we get an unexpected result: All fairy tales are the same in their structure. Interestingly, further in the book, the author associates fairy tales with myths and religion. 3. Functions of actors The main part of the work that describes 31 A function in which we have the hero, the victim, the antagonist, the giver, the helpers, the false hero... In general, this part is interesting to read and see how different behaviors can be reduced to a common function. n 4. Assimilation. Cases of double morphological value of one function Here the author shows how some functions in the process of the evolution of a fairy tale merge together, for example, there are separate functions in the form of a task and a fight. Conventionally, a fight with a dragon or the solution of a complex quest of a princess, but if the princess sets the task to kill a dragon, then we have here a combination of functions:) 5. Some other elements of a fairy tale - here are disassembled bundles of different functions, tripling (fairytale) and the motivations of the characters 6. Distribution of functions by actors Here the author shows what actions different types of characters can perform. 7. Ways to include new persons - here are considered how these types of characters connect to the plot 8. On Attributes of Actors and Their Significance Here the author talks about the totality of external qualities of the characters and how they give beauty and charm to fairy tales. The example of Baba Yaga and her hut, Ivan Tsarevich, magic horses, beautiful princesses is being dealt with. 9. Fairy tale as a whole And here the author takes his toolkit and analyzes several fairy tales, showing how they are arranged into functions and we get ala sentences that describe the fairy tale structurally, and then this structure of fairy tales can be used to classify them.

Overall, this is a very cool job for those who are interested in writing books, fairy tales or just like to look for patterns in different places. I recommend buying a book in a colored edition with pictures, then it is much more pleasant to study and immerse yourself in the world of fairy tales:)

#Writing #Patterns #History