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Propp's Tale Role and a Ballad Repertoire Author(S): David Buchan Source: the Journal of American Folklore, Vol Propp's Tale Role and a Ballad Repertoire Author(s): David Buchan Source: The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 95, No. 376 (Apr. - Jun., 1982), pp. 159-172 Published by: American Folklore Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/540716 . Accessed: 09/04/2013 10:16 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. American Folklore Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of American Folklore. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 143.107.8.10 on Tue, 9 Apr 2013 10:16:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions DAVID BUCHAN Propp's Tale Role and a BalladRepertoire THE WORKOF VLADIMIRPROPP (1968) has exercised a highly stimulating effect on folkloristics in general in recent decades. Its impact on ballad scholarship, however, has been relatively limited. Bruce Beatie (1978) has suggestively analyzed the first 25 ballad types in Child in the light of Propp's mor- phological scheme;Judith Turner(1972) has constructeda Proppiansystem for eight ballad types (Child 69, 70, 71, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77) in her "Morphology of the 'True Love' Ballad"; and Ruth Webber (1978) has utilized Proppian principlesin her "Prolegomenato the Study of the NarrativeStructure of the Hispanic Ballad." And very recently, James Porter (1980) has stressed the potential benefits for ballad studies in Propp's methods. The emphasisin the work done has, understandably,fallen largelyon narrativecontent and the syn- tagmata,rather than on the charactersperforming the action. Ruth Webber's analysis,however, concernsitself closely with the "actors," andJames Porter has suggested that "it may be necessaryto separateactions from agents in some [ballad]sub-genres," basing his statementon David Engle's illuminating comments about the significanceof "dramaticagents" in balladclassification (Porter 1980:21; Engle 1979:158, 160-161, 170). Although Propp's comments on the structuringof the action have inspired the most interest, it is importantto rememberthat he constructed,in Meletin- sky's words, "two structuralmodels. One (the temporalsequence of actions) was more detailed; the other (dramatis personae) was more superficial" (Meletinsky 1971:251). In consequence,Propp providestwo definitionsof the tale-kind he studies. In one it "is a story built upon the proper alternationof the above-cited functions in various forms, with some of them absent from each story and with others repeated"; in the other the tales "could be called tales subordinatedto a seven-personagescheme," and he adds "This term is highly exact but very awkward" (Propp 1968:99, 100). By and large, however, Propp's insights into the role of the dramaticagents have not been taken up and explored, and the reason why is fairly evident. Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 95, No. 376, 1982 Copyright © 1982 by the American Folklore Society 0021-8715/82/3760159-14$1.90/1 This content downloaded from 143.107.8.10 on Tue, 9 Apr 2013 10:16:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 160 DAVIDBUCHAN The significanceof Propp's perceptionshas been obscuredfor anglophone scholarshipby a misleading English translationof Propp's original Russian. Heda Jason and Dmitri Segal in Appendix I of their edition of Patternsin Oral Literaturepoint out that the two quite distinct Russian terms employed by Propp to mean, on the one hand, "tale role" and, on the other, "character" have been indiscriminatelytranslated into English as any of three terms: "dramatis personae," "character," and "personage" (ason and Segal 1977:313, 313-320). What has been lost sight of is Propp's crucialdistinction between the abstract concept of the tale role and the concrete fact of the character. He is, in short, advocating not a unilevel but a bilevel analytic perspective.Jason and Segal extract from the amended text those sentences "which state most clearly what is meant by each term": "The nomenclatureand attributes of taleroles are variable quantities [variables] of the tale.By attributeswe meanthe totalityof all the externalqualities of the characters:their age, sex, status,external appearance .. ." [Propp1968:87]. "a characteris determinedfrom the viewpointof his functions,for example,as a donor, helper. ." [Propp1968:88]. Donor andhelper are tale roles. The donorhas no age, sex, status,etc. But the characterwho playsdonor such as the witch BabaJaga, is old, female,out of society,etc. Thuswe havehere two distinctconcepts [1977:319]. The distinction altersappreciably our understandingof certainkey statements, such as these: The namesof the taleroles change (as well as the attributesof each),but neithertheir actions nor functionschange. From this we candraw the inferencethat a taleoften attributes identical actionsto differentcharacters. This makespossible the studyof the taleaccording tothefunctions of its taleroles [emphasis in original;Jason and Segal1976:314; cf. Propp1968:20]. and Functionis understoodas an actof a talerole, definedfrom the point of viewof itssignificancefor the courseof theaction [emphasis in original;Jason and Segal1976:316; cf. Propp1968:21]. and the tale evidencesseven tale roles[Jason and Segal1976:317; cf. Propp1968:80]. In folkloristicsone becomes accustomedto working on macroand micro levels simultaneously,with such familiarpairings as type and version, motifeme and This content downloaded from 143.107.8.10 on Tue, 9 Apr 2013 10:16:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions TALEROLE AND BALLADREPERTOIRE 161 motif, formulaic system and formula, but Propp's applicationof the bilevel perspectiveto the dramatispersonae of folk literatureis an arrestinginnovation that invites further development. In this paperI propose to take one balladrepertoire and to investigatein its 33 types tale role and characterin the light of Propp'sbilevel perspective.The repertoireis that of Anna Brown, learned in Aberdeenshire,Scotland, just after the mid-18th century and recordedin 1783 and 1800. It is the oldest repertoirein Scottish (or British) balladry, has some aestheticallysuperb ver- sions, and contains representativesof the three large taxonomic groups in British balladry, the Romantic and Tragic, the Magical and Marvellous, and the Historicalcategories. The account in The Balladand the Folk of the actors in this repertoire'sversions shows that the stories have as norm three emo- tionally interactingcharacters, a fact which underliesthe following discussion (Buchan 1972:83-86). The Magical and Marvellousballads furnish a suitable starting point since they form a compact group which can illustrate certain features of the ap- proach. In the Magical and Marvellousballads of this repertoirea relationship between a man and a woman is affectedby a spell; the stories deal with the bespelling and unspelling of a central character.Three of the stories (32, 34, 35) are about the happy uniting of a pair of lovers through an unspelling;one (6) is about a successfulchildbirth for a marriedcouple through an unspelling; and one (37) is about a temporaryrelationship of a mortal and Otherworld figure occasionedby a bespelling(and ended by an unspelling). There are three tale roles: Bespelled,Bespeller, and Unspeller. The Bespelledmay be described as the victim; the Bespellermay normally be describedas the villain (though only in a limited sense in 37, where one characteroccupies two tale roles); and the Unspeller may be describedas a resolver of the difficulties attending the central relationship. Schematicallyrepresented, the tale roles and characters stand as follows: (for an explanationof the abbreviationssee the Appendix) Tale Role: Bespelled Bespeller Unspeller Character: 6 S HM H + 1 32 S H 34 S SS-M H 35 H S QoE 37 H QoE QoE Some points worthy of note arise from this little schema:one story (32) has just two charactersfilling two tale roles; one story hasjust two charactersfill- ing the three tale roles, when in 37 the Queen of Elfland, an Otherworld This content downloaded from 143.107.8.10 on Tue, 9 Apr 2013 10:16:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 162 DAVIDBUCHAN figure, is both Bespellerand Unspeller;and one story has two charactersfilling the one tale role, for in 6 the hero is aidedby an ancillary,Belly Blin, another Otherworld figure. This accordswith what Propp found in the tale when he examined the "spheresof action" of the seven tale roles. First, one can have a sphere of action which "exactly corresponds to the character," that is, a characteris a "pure donor" or "pure helper." Second, one can have one character "involved in several spheres of action," that is, an individual charactercan be "simultaneouslyboth a donor and a helper." Third, one can have a single sphereof action "distributedamong severalcharacters," that is, more than one charactercan act as helperor as donor (Propp 1968:80-82). The charactersin the schemaare describedin terms of their placewithin the central pairing (H, S), their familialrelationship to either of the centralpairing (HM, SS-M), or, in the case of the Queen of Elfland, a particularposition that im- plies certain attributes. In other groups we
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