Propp Narrative - Your Game

VLADIMIR PROPP (1895-1970)

Propp was a Bulgarian theorist. In his 1922 work The Morphology of the Folk Tale he analysed something like 400 Russian folk tales. He found that across all of these tales, despite apparent differences, characters and their actions can be categorized into clearly defined roles and functions (8 character roles and 31 narrative functions) which are summarized here:

The hero: seeks something, to fulfill a ‘lack’ of some kind

The villain: opposed the hero, tries to make the hero fail

The donor: aids the hero by providing an object with magical properties

The dispatcher: sends the hero on a quest of some kind

The false hero: pretends to be the hero

The helper: assists the hero in some way

The princess: doubles up as a reward for the hero and the object of the

villain’s plot

Her father: will reward the hero (often by giving the hero his daughter)

CUT AND PASTE THE ABOVE AND PUT IT ON YOUR BLOG.

SHOW YOU UNDERSTAND IT BY APPLYING IT TO A GAME OF YOUR CHOICE - DISCUSS HOW WELL I FITS AND TALK ABOUT WHERE IT DOESN'T.

APPLY THIS TO YOUR OWN GAME AND DISCUSS HOW WELL THE THEORY WORKS