Vladimir Propp

Vladimir Propp was a Russian and Soviet folklorist who analyzed the recurring plot functions and character roles of Russian folktales, especially in his 1928 book Morphology of the Folktale.

Morphology of the Folktale: Vladimir Propp’s 1928 study identifying recurring functions and character roles in Russian folktales. This book presents the analysis that made Propp’s method known.
Propp's 31 functions: A sequence of recurring actions that Propp identified across the Russian wonder tales he studied. These functions are the method’s detailed units for describing plot progression.
Russian Formalism: A literary movement that analyzed the devices and structures distinguishing literary works. Propp’s focus on narrative form developed amid this movement’s debates.
Claude Lévi-Strauss: A French anthropologist who analyzed myths through structural relations and oppositions. Lévi-Strauss’s critique raised questions about whether Propp’s model captured mythic structure.
Narrative function: An action defined by its significance for a story’s development, rather than by its particular performer. Propp’s functions classify what happens in a tale, not merely who acts.
Propp's seven character spheres: Propp’s grouping of tale characters into seven roles, including the hero, villain, and donor. The spheres show how distinct characters can occupy recurring narrative roles.
Viktor Shklovsky: A Russian literary critic and theorist associated with Russian Formalism. Shklovsky’s formalist work provides a neighboring account of literary devices.
Algirdas Julien Greimas: A Lithuanian-French semiotician who developed structural models of narrative and meaning. Greimas transformed role-based analysis into a broader model of narrative relations.
Character archetype: A recurring character pattern that appears across stories and traditions. Propp’s character roles describe recurring positions within a tale’s action.
Morphology: The study of the forms and structural organization of a subject. Propp treats tales as structures whose recurring parts can be compared.

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