Reading this, I found myself wondering what the difference between a "folktale" and a "fairytale" is. Here's what wikipedia says about the definition of "folklore": Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group.
So the general characteristics of the folktale that Propp outlines are: the hero leaves home, the hero is faced with a problem, the hero must overcome this problem, the bad guy comes into the picture and so forth. According to the definition, we can assume that this general storyline will weave in details about the customs and traditions of specific cultures. However, what I found the most surprising is that tales from different time periods and from different parts of the world all follow along a similar format. How can it be that this could be repeated within so many cultures and historical contexts?
This makes me think of this movie I saw a while ago, Waking Life by Richard Linklater. There's this scene with a couple talking about random things and they get on the subject of information and collective memory and how it seems like people all around the world simultaneously come up with the same idea yet they are all completely independent of each other. It's kind of like once someone thinks it up, this idea, this knowledge is out there for other people to grasp. Kind of like the structure of a folktale, someone thought it up and then it was repeated throughout the world. Propp shows how the storyline is the same, independent of the context and the characters, it's basically all aiming towards the same function.
Here's the clip I'm referring to (they talk about it around the end, about at 2:30 minutes into the clip): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbAVF0L2Z-k&feature=related
But then again, maybe it's just a testament of human nature. Maybe that format is the basic steps to someone growing up and maturing, I mean we all have to leave home at some point, there's always going to be obstacles in the way and there will always be people who try to get in the way of our happiness and accomplishments. Maybe the folktale is just a way of showing children what they will eventually have to go through in life but told in a more fantastical and entertaining way.
Jon said that really all our interpretations were simply new stories about the first story; what I understood is that basically our way of understanding anything is through stories. If that is the case, then Propp (or some version of his analysis) is really telling us how we think about anything!
ReplyDeleteWaking Life is great! And I think it is a good symbol for a theory class -- it shows how Sklovsky's "roughened" language makes things poetic (the images are roughened in Waking Life; but I suppose the language is too).
I wonder if the author of this essay took into account falktales known to most cultures or if he was generalizing in his analysis...
ReplyDeleteHere you provide the definition of folklore, and I thought I'd add the definition for folktale. FOLKTALE: A folktale is a type of traditional story that tries to explain or understand the world. Such stories were orally passed down through the generations and feature morals or lessons. The stories usually take place long ago in a faraway place and are woven around talking animals, royalty, peasants, or mythical creatures (http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-folktale.htm).
That is a general definition and I think that by seeing some folktales we would notice some differences, for example, this Russian tale, Emelya and the Pike, (http://russian-crafts.com/russian-folk-tales/emelya-and-the-pike.html) is quite different from The Disobedient Son, a Mayan folktale (http://www.folkart.com/folktale/tale_4.htm). Yes, they both seem to feature morals or lessons in the story (among other characteristics that they seem to share); however, even though they seem similar, I was thinking that because they are both disassociated with a particular place and time, they are easy to tell, distort and apply to a particular culture or situation in a given place and time...maybe that's why there are stories from countries far away from yours and yet you know them, but consider it a local one because you may have grown up hearing it?...I don't know...just a thought =p At any rate, I find this genre fascinating for combining the everyday language with the poetic language...
Regarding Waking life, love it! It never gets old. Every time I watch it some new realization takes place =D
The end of your post really made me think about my own life and the obstacles that we as humans have to overcome on a daily basis. With this said, I have to say I like the analogy you make between the folktale and what it shows children and how it connects to the hero's life (in adulthood) so to speak.
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