Morphology of the Folktale This page intentionally left blank American Folklore Society Bibliographical and Special Series Volume 9/Revised Edition/1968 Indiana University Research Center in Anthropology, Folklore, and Linguistics Publication 10/Revised Edition/1968 This page intentionally left blank Morphology of the Folktale by V. Propp First Edition Translated by Laurence Scott with an Introduction by Svatava Pirkova-Jakobson Second Edition Revised and Edited with a Preface by Louis A. Wagner INew Introduction by Alan Dundes University of Texas Press Austin International Standard Book Number 978-0-292-78376-8 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 68-65567 Copyright © 1968 by the American Folklore Society and Indiana University All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Twentieth paperback printing, 2009 Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to: Permissions University of Texas Press P.O. Box 7819 Austin, TX 78713-7819 www.utexas.edu/utpress/about/bpermission.html ©The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R1997) (Permanence of Paper). CONTENTS Preface to the Second Edition ix Introduction to the Second Edition xi Introduction to the First Edition xix Acknowledgements xxiii Author's Foreword XXV I. On the History of the Problem 3 II. The Method and Material 19 III. The Functions of Dramatis Personae 25 IV. Assimilations: Cases of the Double Morphological Meaning of a Single Function 66 V. Some Other Elements of the Tale 71 A. Auxiliary Elements for the Interconnection of Functions 71 B. Auxiliary Elements in Trebling 74 C. Motivations 75 VI. The Distribution of Functions Among Dramatis Personae 79 VII. Ways in Which New Characters Are Introduced into the Course of Action 84 VIII. On the Attributes of Dramatis Personae and their Significance 87 IX. The Tale as a Whole 92 A. The Ways in Which Stories Are Combined 92 B. An Example of Analysis of a Tale 96 C. The Problem of Classification 99 D. On the Relationship of Particular Forms of Structure to the General Patter 104 E. The Problem of Composition and Theme, and of Themes and Variants 113 F. Conclusion 115 Vlll MORPHOLOGY OF THE FOLKTALE Appendix I: Materials for a Tabulation of the Tale 119 Appendix II: Further Techniques of Analyses 128 Appendix HI: Schemes and Commentary 135 Appendix IV: List of Abbreviations 149 Appendix V: Comparative Chart of Tale Numbers 156 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION THE PREPARATION of this second English edition of Vladimir Propp's Morphology of the Folktale had two major objectives. The first was to make some changes in the text of the first edition for the sake of completeness and uniformity. In this regard, note should be taken of one general convention adopted for the present edition: the expression narddnaja skdzka has been ren- dered as "folktale," voU6bnaja skdzka as "fairy tale," and the words skdzka (noun), skdzofnyj (adjective) simply as "tale." The chief departure from this practice is in regard to the title itself (Morfoldgija skdzki), since a change here might have led to un- due confusion. The morphology presented by the author is, of course, a morphology of the fairy tale specifically, and he is care- ful to make note of this fact in the Foreword and in Chapter II. Thus the title of the work is, unfortunately, somewhat unclear. It is evident from the text that the unqualified word skdzka is used by Propp both in the sense of tale in general and in the sense of fairy tale, depending upon context. The reader must infer the appropriate meaning in each instance. The second major objective was to update the author's nu- merical references to tales contained in the collection Narddnye riisskie skdzki by A. N. Afands'ev, so that they would correspond to the sequential enumeration of texts which was adopted for the fifth (1936-1940) and sixth (1957) editions of that funda- mental work. Propp's basic corpus of material, tales numbered 50 to 151 in the earlier editions (with letters designating similar texts, e.g. 140a, b, c, etc.) and cited by him, are consequently numbered 93 to 270 in the last two editions of Afanis'ev and in the present works. A list of pertinent correspondences between the newer and older numbers is provided in Appendix V. The updating of the numerical references, however, required that many of them be checked against the tales themselves, as the original text of Morfoldgija skdzki contains a number of obvious misprints and other inconsistencies, especially in regard X MORPHOLOGY OF THE FOLKTALE to the citation of these references and to the use of symbols in the schemes and elsewhere. Therefore, in an attempt to make the present edition as useful as possible, a systematic check of all textual references relating to the tales themselves was under- taken, and those numbers found to be in error were corrected. Every instance of correction is described in a footnote. The checking of references incidentally revealed other incon- sistencies or, at any rate, instances of careless phrasing in the utilization of these references by the author. However, no at- tempt at emendation was made in such cases; rather, they also are described in footnotes, generally accompanied by inclusion of the original text. It should be noted that the checking of references did not include those made by the author in his own footnotes—they are reproduced essentially as presented. The few minor changes which were felt necessary, apart from those described, are appropriately indicated. One feature of the original work has not been preserved: a number of chapters are headed by quotations from Goethe, and these have been dropped as nonessential. I wish to thank Frank Ingram and Stephen Soudakoff of Indiana University for their careful comparison of the original text with my revised translation, which resulted in many emendations and helpful suggestions. Indiana University Louis A. WAGNER 1968 INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION SINCE THE APPEARANCE of the English translation of Vladimir Propp's Morphology of the Folktale in 1958, there has been an ever increasing interest in attempting structural analyses of various folklore genres. In view of the enormous impact Propp's study has had on folklorists, linguists, anthropologists, and liter- ary critics, one can only regret that there was a thirty-year time lag between Propp's completion of the Morphology in 1928 and the time that most European and American scholars read it. The stimulating effect of Propp's seminal ideas is indicated in part by the number of studies it has inspired (L£vi-Strauss 1960, Dundes 1962a, 1964b, Bremond 1964, Greimas 1966b: 172-221). To be sure, some of the studies are critical (cf. Taylor 1964), but from the criticism has come even more insight (e.g., Fischer 1963:288-289). Even though the flurry of activity initiated by the publication of Propp's Morphology has really barely begun, some preliminary comments may be made. First of all, there seem to be at least two distinct types of structural analysis in folklore. One is the type of which Propp's Morphology is the exemplar par excellence. In this type, the structure or formal organization of a folkloristic text is described following the chronological order of the linear sequence of ele- ments in the text as reported from an informant. Thus if a tale consists of elements A to Z, the structure of the tale is delineated in terms of this same sequence. Following L£vi-Strauss (1964: 312), this linear sequential structural analysis we might term "syntagmatic" structural analysis, borrowing from the notion of syntax in the study of language (cf. Greimas 1966a:404). The other type of structural analysis in folklore seeks to describe the pattern (usually based upon an a priori binary principle of opposition) which allegedly underlies the folkloristic text. This pattern is not the same as the sequential structure at all. Rather the elements are taken out of the "given" order and are re- grouped in one or more analytic schema. Patterns or organiza- Xii MORPHOLOGY OF THE FOLKTALE tion in this second type of structural analysis might be termed "paradigmatic" (cf. Sebag 1963:75), borrowing from the notion of paradigms in the study of language. The champion of paradigmatic structural analysis is Claude L£vi-Strauss and it should be noted that he presented a para- digmatic model as early as 1955, that is, well before the English translation of Propp's work. The hypothetical paradigmatic matrix is typically one in which polar oppositions such as life/ death, male/female are mediated. L£vi-Strauss is certainly aware of the distinction between Propp's syntagmatic structure and his paradigmatic structure. In fact, L£vi-Strauss's position is essen- tially that linear sequential structure is but apparent or mani- fest content, whereas the paradigmatic or schematic structure is the more important latent content. Thus the task of the struc- tural analyst, according to L£vi-Strauss, is to see past or through the superficial linear structure to the "correct" or true under- lying paradigmatic pattern of organization (L£vi-Strauss 1955: 432; 1958:18; 1964:313). Although some of the differences between syntagmatic and paradigmatic analyses have been pointed out (cf. Waugh 1966:161), most folklorists are not aware of them and they wrongly lump both Propp and L£vi-Strauss together in the same category. (Propp himself attempted to comment on L£vi-Strauss's extended critique of the Morphology but this exchange is available only in the 1966 Italian transla- tion of Propp's work to which L£vi-Strauss's 1960 critique and Propp's rejoinder are appended.) Generally speaking, the'syn- tagmatic approach tends to be both empirical and inductive, and its resultant analyses can be replicated.