RECONSTRUCTION OF THE METHODOLOGY OF STUDYING THE FAIRY TALE OF V. Y. PROPP (SOME OBSERVATIONS)

РЕКОНСТРУКЦИЯ МЕТОДОЛОГИИ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ ВОЛШЕБНОЙ СКАЗКИ В. Я. ПРОППА (НЕКОТОРЫЕ НАБЛЮДЕНИЯ)

Спицын Дмитрий Романович

студент, кафедра философии и теологии, Белгородский государственный национальный исследовательский университет,

РФ, г. Белгород

Чистякова Екатерина Юрьевна

научный руководитель, канд. философ. наук, доц., Белгородский государственный национальный исследовательский университет,

РФ, г. Белгород

ABSTRACT

The article is devoted to the analysis of the methodology of studying fairy tales by V. Ya. Propp. The work touches upon the problem of a narrow understanding of the scientific heritage of V. Ya. Propp. "Morphology of the Tale" was a monograph that formed a kind of introduction to the historical and genetic study of fairy tales. The study showed that the genesis of fairy tales was of greater interest to V. Ya. Propp, in contrast to their structural study, the need for which the scientist was able to discover. The work demonstrates the primacy of the synchronic method of research over the diachronic in the works of V. Ya. Propp. The main features of the scientific activity of V. Ya. Propp are noted, in which an increase in historical research interest in the fairy tale in the chronology of the scientist's scientific works was observed.

АННОТАЦИЯ

Статья посвящена анализу методологии изучения волшебных сказок В. Я. Проппа. В работе затрагивается проблема узкого понимания научного наследия В. Я. Проппа. «Морфология сказки» была монографией, образующей своего рода вступление перед историко-генетическим изучением волшебных сказок. Исследование показало, что генезис волшебных сказок представлял больший интерес для В. Я. Проппа, в отличии от их структурного изучения, необходимость в котором учёный сумел обнаружить. Работа демонстрирует первенство синхронического метода исследования над диахроническим в работах В. Я. Проппа. Замечены основные особенности научной деятельности В. Я. Проппа, в которой наблюдалось увеличение исторического исследовательского интереса к сказке в хронологии научных трудов учёного.

Keywords: V. Ya. Propp; methodology; synchronic method; diachronic method; function.

Ключевые слова: В. Я. Пропп; методология; синхронический метод; диахронический метод; функция.

The research of the founder of the comparative typological method in folklore studies, as well as one of the creators of the modern theory of text — Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp (1895-1970) at one time aroused great interest and various assessments in the scientific community. Behind the wide popularity of the works of Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp lies ignorance of the foundations of his methodology, the legacy left by the scientist is thought of only within the framework of the structural analysis of fairy tales. The roots of thought and the time in which the scientist had to live and work were able to dispose him to Russian folk culture, forming the basis for the growth of his research interests. V. Ya. Propp endured many difficulties, against the background of the events that took place at that time, his health was at risk. Nevertheless, having overcome the dark period of his activity associated with the change in political sentiments and the wave of criticism that fell upon him, the scientist was able to calmly continue his work, the results of which changed the attitude to folklore research.

Propp's view of the fairy tale is critical and striving for scientific precision, about which the scientist himself wrote in his diary, pointing out his own predisposition to structures: «I have a cursed gift: to see form in everything at once, at first glance. I remember how in Pavlovsk, at the dacha, as a tutor in a Jewish family, I took Afanasyev. I opened issue No. 50 and began to read this issue and the following ones. And it immediately became clear: the composition of all the plots is one and the same» [3, p. 327].

Vladimir Yakovlevich's life in research activities was rich. The scientist met many interesting personalities on his life path, who not only supported him in his scientific work, but also left their mark on his intellectual position, influencing him. For example, such a person as the Russian literary historian A. N. Veselovsky (1838-1906), whom V. Ya. Propp often mentioned, as the Soviet and Russian philologist, cultural historian, founder of the research school of theoretical folklore studies E. M. Meletinsky (1918-2005) notes, with respect, and on whom he relied to varying degrees in his works. The author of the book «Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp and Russian Folklore Studies» (2005) E. Warner notes that Propp repeatedly came under the influence of the comparative ethnographic method, first of all, having become acquainted with the works of Veselovsky, but also later, having studied the sources of American and Western European anthropologists.

It is also worth mentioning the Russian and Polish linguist I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay, who is considered one of the founders of structuralism in Russia, thereby placing him on a par with Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist and the predecessor of all modernists, whose ideas were systematic. The connection with de Saussure lies in Propp's use of the synchronic method, which de Saussure introduced and promoted in linguistics. This method involves considering the subject of research as an established system. E. M. Meletinsky writes about the primacy of synchronicity in Propp's method: «Studying the specifics of a fairy tale, V. Ya. Propp proceeded from the fact that a diachronic (historical-genetic) examination of a fairy tale should be preceded by its strict synchronic description» [2, p. 164]. This tells us that, according to V. Ya. Propp, the study of a fairy tale should begin not with its origin, but with the formation of a clear idea of​ the subject of research, analysis and systematization. Vladimir Yakovlevich gives examples of existing classifications, pointing out the absence of any correctness in the foundations: one category of fairy tales can intersect with another, otherwise have a clear distinction, when in essence this is not necessary.

Candidate of Philosophical Sciences, author of the dissertation «The Ideas of V. Ya. Propp in the Intellectual Context of the Era: Philosophical and Methodological Analysis» E. G. Volkova asserts that Propp strove to obtain precise, empirically verifiable knowledge, that he rejected ready-made methodological schemes, recognized natural science as the standard of science and saw the need to study folklore, both from the point of view of form and content. We can find confirmation of the words about the importance of a holistic study in Propp’s second monograph, aimed at studying the genesis of the fairy tale: «firstly: not a single plot of a fairy tale can be studied without another, and secondly: not a single motive of a fairy tale can be studied without its relation to the whole» [5, p. 6].

In the first monograph, V. Ya. Propp's working hypothesis was the existence of fairy tales, identified by the Finnish folklore researcher A. Aarne and the American folklorist and fairy tale scholar S. Thompson under numbers 300 to 749. The scientist noticed a compositional similarity in fairy tales, which is formed by predicates in a phrase. But this is only part of the answer to the question of why Vladimir Yakovlevich chose fairy tales from the entire list of folklore genres.

In «Historical Roots» he writes: «Although fairy tales are part of folklore, they do not represent a part that is inseparable from this whole. They are not the same as a hand in relation to a body or a leaf in relation to a tree. They, being a part, at the same time constitute something whole and are taken here as a whole» [5, p. 6]. They can be singled out from the general list, since they are unique in their own structure, thereby making the study of fairy tales possible due to the reduction in the volume of folklore material, which researchers are not able to study in its entirety.

Of particular interest to Propp are the functions of the characters, since it is in them and in their relationship to each other that the structural uniformity of the fairy tale lies. A function is understood as an action of a character that is significant for the plot of a fairy tale. The number of functions of the characters is limited, they are sequential. In a hypothetical representation, a fairy tale is «a story built on the correct alternation of the given functions in various forms, with the absence of some of them for each story and with the repetition of others» [4, p. 91]. Correct alternation means the necessary succession of one function after another, repeated in other fairy tales. V. Ya. Propp's idea was that by focusing on this sequence it is possible to create an index of types. The scheme presented by Propp, to which all the fairy tales included in the book are reduced, is proof of the thesis on the structural uniformity of the studied type of fairy tales. It is also a demonstration of their most frequent composition.

Vladimir Yakovlevich's first work could not answer all the questions that arose during the study of the fairy tale and was not unconditional, however, the scientist tried to identify points that require more detailed consideration. The fact is that a fairy tale consists not only of functions, it contains changeable elements. Propp called these elements attributes of the characters. The general picture is as follows: a fairy tale character has attributes and qualities that contain semantic concepts. One character can perform different functions: in one fairy tale, a snake can be a giver, and in another, play the role of an antagonist. Despite the fact that the function is understood as if in isolation from the performer, all the same, the qualitative characteristics are tied to the canonical image of the character, to a certain pattern of elements of the fairy tale. Accordingly, the interpretation of the appearance, home and other details characterizing the character will have other prerequisites. The difficulty lies in the abundance of material that is closely related to each other, because a fairy tale is not only uniform, but also diverse. And, recalling that, according to Vladimir Yakovlevich, all predicates give the composition of fairy tales, then the attributes of the characters are all subjects, objects and other parts of the phrase that determine the plot.

It is impossible to ignore the phenomenon that V. Ya. Propp called the assimilation of the functions of the characters. One function dissolves in another, since despite their differences they can be performed in the same way. This creates a difficulty when trying to classify, the correspondence of the connection between the initial and final function is lost and a new sequence is acquired that falls out of the general category. The substantive diversity of the functions of the characters, as well as the assimilations formed by the freedom of meaning-making, create a difficulty that, in the scientist's opinion, can be overcome when studying the metamorphoses of the elements of a fairy tale. Transformations can be both compositional and attributive. In the case of a plot, it is quite difficult to determine whether the fairy tale being studied represents a separate plot or is a type of one already existing among those studied. Vladimir Yakovlevich puts forward an assumption that when studying the metamorphoses of a fairy tale, the result of these scientific searches will be the discovery of the form of the «proto-fairy tale», in relation to which the rest of the tales will be variants.

«The Morphology of the Fairy Tale» not only answered the question of what a fairy tale is. This work outlined the guidelines, but also served as a basis for further study of this section of folklore - historical and genetic, the principles of which were set out in the following monograph «Historical Roots of the Fairy Tale», closely related to the first, which Propp stated in his response article entitled «Structural and Historical Study of the Fairy Tale» arguing with the French social anthropologist and ethnologist, the creator and theorist of the structuralist approach in anthropology Levi-Strauss (1908-2005). Despite the morphological uniformity, the fairy tale is filled with an incredible number of images, which reflect a huge number of socio-cultural phenomena. The functions are a kind of reconstruction of ancient rites and customs, coinciding with them completely or partially.

Nevertheless, relying on the precedence of the synchroic method over the diachronic, we believe that "The Morphology of the Fairy Tale" was a work that Propp himself needed first and foremost. It forms a kind of introduction to the historical study, which, in our opinion, was of greater interest to Vladimir Yakovlevich than the structural one, the need for which he was able to discover, opening up for his research path the vastness of the historical reality of the fairy tale.

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