Theory and History of Folklore

1984
Author:

Vladimir Propp
Anatoly Liberman, editor
Translated by Ariadna Y. Martin and Martin Richard P.
Introduction by Anatoly Liberman

A selection of seven essays and three book chapters from Russian folklorist Propp’s later work.

The Russian folklorist Vladimir Propp published his first book, Morphology of the Folktale, in 1928. Since it was translated to English, in 1958, it has become an international bestseller and is well known as a major theoretical work in oral literature. Now, Anatoly Liberman has selected seven essays and three chapters from his later books which together reveal the full range of Propp’s thought in Theory and History of Folklore. This will help readers see that his work is essentially a theory of narrative. Included are the famous essay by Claude Levi-Strauss about Propp and Propp’s response to Levi-Strauss’s Critique.

“This book will give Propp’s admirers in the English-speaking world a whole new perspective on this distinguished scholar’s contribution to folkloristics. Liberman provides the necessary background in terms of Russian/Soviet intellectual (and political) currents to place Propp’s work in a new light. No student of structuralism in folklore can afford to miss Liberman’s anthology.” -Alan Dundes, University of California, Berkeley

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