Proppian

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Pertaining to the ideas, analysis, or approach developed by Russian folklorist Vladimir Propp, especially regarding narrative structure in folktales
2. Describing something influenced by or associated with the narrative principles or classifications established by Vladimir Propp in his studies of folklore
3. Connected to the theoretical concepts, story analysis, or character function framework introduced by Vladimir Propp in the field of folklore studies

Etymology: Proppian is a term named after Vladimir Propp, the Russian folklorist whose 1928 book "Morphology of the Folktale" analysed Russian fairy tales and reduced their plots to a fixed sequence of thirty-one narrative functions. The adjective is simply that surname with the suffix "-ian" attached, the same pattern that gives "Darwinian" from Darwin or "Freudian" from Freud. Literary critics and narratologists use it to describe analyses, structures or characters that follow Propp's model of folk narrative. The word therefore carries a person's name inside it: to call a story's structure Proppian is to say that it can be mapped onto Propp's functions, such as a hero leaving home, receiving a magical helper, or defeating a villain. The label is used in English almost entirely within academic and critical writing about storytelling.

Synonyms: structuralist, morphologist, narratologist, folklorist, thematic