« Back to Lesson Menu


Once Upon a Time and All That

 

 

Introduction

Andersen wrote at a period that was typified by Romanticism. Romanticism cherished folklore, and two publications--both from about 1700--actually foreshadowed and inspired Romanticism's profound interest in folktales. Those were Charles Perrault's Mother Goose and Arabian Nights, and they paved the way for the folktale collections of the Brothers Grimm and Mathias Winther.  A Russian scholar, Vladimir Propp, has studied the structure of the magic tale and reached the conclusion that the magic tale is composed of 31 plot elements, or functions, that always follow the same sequence. In fact, it is difficult to find a tale that contains all 31 elements, for each storyteller uses only a selection of the 31 elements.  Critics have revised Propp's structural model and have arrived at a model that contains five or six functions. That model is tagged Propp-Revised (in short: Propp-R).

Lecture

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

Readings

1. "The Traveling Companion"
2. "TheCompanion"
3. "Children's Prattle"
4. "The Eleven Swans"
5. "The Wild Swans"

Quiz

Remember, you can take the quiz only once.

Take Quiz

 

Bulletin Board

GO