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Posted by Michael Sympson on 13/12/2001, 20:30:15
Fairy tales have an underpinning structural vocabulary of patterns, characters, and situations.
But the anecdotal and the various morals need to be separated first to lay bare the structure.
For instance the hero's deep sleep in critical situations is a motif shuffled about to serve in
all sorts of different situations and contexts everywhere in the world. But I am not interested in
the contexts - I just want to get a systematic grip on the patterning. It is pre-mythological,
because a mythological tale, once it advances from its most primitive state, is loaded with
etiological messages and morals. What I look for is the most basic element, the Lego-block
of narrative imagination. People, who like big fancy cooking words may call it "archetypes" -
I don't mind, as long as we don't mix it up with C.G.Jung's nonsense or Northrop Frye's
bogus criticism. Campbell too, is already beyond the threshold.
What I look for are the elements in a state prior to being put into a mythological context or
expressing a socio-psychological state of mind - just the bare bone vocabulary of primitive
narrative, on which everybody has to fall back when he starts formulating a new piece of
narrative - be it to avoid the cliche or as a connecting link in his "bricolage," (Levy-Strauss) -
and this regardless of who he is or where she lives: European, Chinese or Eskimo. So to
speak, it is the underlying beat or basso continuo of narrative composition. So far I have
looked high and low and far and wide, but never came across a textbook that would list these
elements in the form of a convenient manual of narrative patterns. What I have read so far had
always been too developed and tainted by cultural interpretations or the pet ideas of the
author. Anybody who knows a title, old or new, that fits the description?
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Posted by Gerrit on 17/12/2001, 3:11:54, in reply to "A question"
I don't know whether this is any good, because I only read a tiny review about it but you might want to check out "Morfologija Skazki" by a Russian author named Vladimir Propp published in 1928. According to the review he came to the conclusion that all fairy tales are made up of at most 31 different functions, like displacement of the hero, return of the hero, finishing an assignment etc. Also he categorizes the type of characters into seven types.
I hope this is of any use to you.
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Posted by Michael Sympson on 17/12/2001, 7:06:29, in reply to "Re: A question"
That would probably fit the bill, thank you. I try following up on this. Does anybody know a more recent publication in this vein?
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Posted by Michael Sympson on 20/12/2001, 7:50:12, in reply to "Re: A question"
Checked it out - he fits the bill exactly! Now I got to find more like him. Apparently he was a lone wolf and misunderstood. Thanks again.
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