Structural Ism, Fairy Tales And Myth

STRUCTURALISM, FAIRY TALES AND MYTH The works of Vladimir Propp and Claude LeviStrauss

Structuralism  Structuralism identifies structures and

systems of relationships which endow signs or items with identities and meanings and shows us the ways in which we think.  It has been applied to a variety of social and cultural phenomena.  It is based on the realization that human actions and creations are based on an underlying system of conventions.

Ferdinand de Saussure  The pioneer of

structuralism is widely considered to be Ferdinand de Saussure.  Course in General Linguistics  Langue – the system of language  Parole – A specific speech event

 During World War I, a group of scholars in Moscow

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perceived the possibilities of using Saussure‟s theories as a model for studying other phenomena. „ Vladimir Propp studied folk tales as structural units. Viktor Shklovsky – estrangement and defamiliarization; story and plot Claude Levi-Strauss in Structural Anthropology used the paradigmatic approach; the structures of discourse that are latently or vertically embedded and can represented as binary oppositions. He found structures in myth point to the structures of the human mind which are common to all people and transcend boundaries.

Vladimir Propp  Vladimir Yakovlevich

Propp was a Russian formalist scholar.  Morphology of the Folktale (1928)

 He analyzed the basic

plot components of folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible plot elements.  He analyzed over 150 Russian fairy tales; other researchers applied it fairy tales from other cultures.

31 FUNCTIONS  Propp‟s first eight functions detail the villain‟s

efforts to create a situation for which a hero might come to the rescue. (Absentation, abduction, violation, complicity)  Functions 9-11 detail the beginning of the hero‟s journey.  Functions 12-19 include “the hero is interrogated”, “The donor enters”, “Hero is led to the object of search”, “Hero and villain join in direct combat”  Functions 20-31 offer paths for the hero‟s return and include the functions of punishment, transfiguration and the wedding (the happily-ever-

7 ACTANTS – The Dramatis Personae  Hero

 Villain  Donor

 Helper  Princess

 Dispatcher  False Hero

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST  Absentation – An      

Absent father Interdiction – Not pluck the rose Violation – Plucking the rose Hero leaves – Beauty leaves her home Task – Revive the Beast Transformation – The Beast is transformed Wedding – Beauty and her prince can now get married

CINDERELLA  Villainy/Lack –

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Cinderella‟s ill-treatment Interdiction – (by the dispatcher, donor, helper) Return before midnight Violation – Misses the midnight deadline Beginning Counteraction – The prince sets out with the slipper Liquidation – He finds Cinderella Wedding – Cinderella and the Prince live happily ever after.

ALADDIN  The Hero – Aladdin

 The Villain – Jafar  The Donor – Jafar  The Helper – Genie  The Princess –

Jasmine  Her Father – the Sultan  The Dispatcher – Genie and Jafar  The False Hero Jafar

THE LION KING  The Hero – Simba

 The Villain – Scar  The Donor – Rafiki    

the monkey The Helper(s) – Timon and Poomba The Dispatcher – Nala The Princess – Nala The False Hero - Scar

CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS  A French

anthropologist, wellknown for his development of structural anthropology and structural analyses of mythology.  The Structural Study of Myth  Myths from different cultures all over the world are similar.  The specific myth is the parole while the

 Myths are made of units

put together according to certain rules. These units form relations with each other, based on binary pairs or opposites.  Smallest components of a myth – mythemes.  In his analysis of the Oedipus myth, he assigns numbers to the mythemes and analyses them paradigmatically.  Oedipus – high value to kinship representing a downscaling of the family.

CONCLUSION  Structuralism can be applied to a wide variety of

phenomena; here it has been applied to literary phenomena, anthropology, folkloristics and psychology.  The smallest elements that make up any fairy tale are similar in every culture  There is a specific event and a system of rules underlying it; structuralism helps us identify this system of rules.  These elements transcend cultural, temporal and linguistic boundaries.

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