Criticism of Vladimir Propp’s Theory on Genesis of Magic Fairy Tales’ Structure

Similar mortally-immoral semantics in different codes have also fabrics, curtains, tents of circus and roundabouts on which the stars were painted. They represented the idea of heavenly circulation, a motion from death to life. A bridal veil is the same heavenly arch which has a dualistic semantics both of death, and revival. Hence - coverlets and cloths with which the dead men and a table on which they laid were covered. Staying on a table-altar, the died man was considered as totem-king, certainly due to revive. From here originate those meanings of a table which are connected with the Supreme authority - „Vоlоdуmуr in Kуїv on a table” (ukr., russ. „стол” - `a table', derived concepts „столиця” - `a capital', „престол” - `throne').

All this allows to draw conclusions that usual things and phenomena examined from the point of view of the approach offered by O. Frejdenberg which heuristic potential is developed by us with reference to the offered universal-cultural concept of the analysis of culture texts, show their forgotten or unusual meanings which go back to invariants, or culture universalias, such as birth, life, death and immortality, and corresponding world outlook codes.

Rejecting the idea of direct borrowing of deep universal-cultural invariants in texts of culture in general and in pieces of literature in particular and insisting on acceptance of the concept of their generation, I do not deny the fact, that development of cultural forms provides the presence of a certain continuity, tradition and heredity of development of the fixed cultural images, plots and characters on a background of their natural transformation.

But even this transformation does not lead to disappearance of primary CUB-senses involved in semiosphere of things, processes and figures. Thus, it is possible to outline the history of origin of a figure of a circus clown as stage evolution of certain personifications of world outlook senses of strengthening of life through dying of a totem-animal, tsar, slave and clown.

The clown is the degenerated figure of the slave, the double of tsar-leader who took up the mortal semantics of Saturnalia. In this festival the social relations "turned over", a tsar for a while became a "slave", and the slave became "tsar". In traditional ritual of change of tsar instead of him there was killed his temporary assistant, the slave. Later the slave turns into the clown who was dressed up as tsar.

In circus he gets the appearance of the "red-haired circus clown", who was not killed any more, but simply beaten on an arena and who later turns into a strolling actor, a juggler, a skomorokh, acting on stilts (the former cothurnus) in booths, demonstrating the puppet-show and so forth. However in spite of radical changes in roles and meanings, successive figures of an animal-totem, tsar, slave and clown keep as the fundamental structurally-semantic basis the categories of ultimate bases and dominating world outlook idea of overcoming of death by an immortal life.

Table of Contents

Summary

TOPICS

1. Philosophical and methodological basis of the Weltanschauung Categories of Ultimate Bases researching.

2. Categories of Ultimate Bases as Universalias of Culture

3. Investigation of profound invariant of the structure of a fairy tale as the applied version of search for universalias in texts of culture

4. An explication of internal contradictions of the theory of V. Propp as a precondition of its falsification

5. Falsification of the theory of V. Propp by means of increasing a level of universality of a deductive hypothesis about a universal-cultural structure of culture texts

6. Outlines of a new paradigm of the analysis of the origin of invariant structure of culture texts: “the universal-cultural version”

Олександр Сергійович Кирилюк

Анти-Пропп

Критика теорії В. Проппа зі структури чарівної казки та її генезису

kiriliuk@infra.co.ua

Брошура

Наукове видання

Англійська мова

Olexander Kyryliuk. ANTI-PROPP. Criticism of Vladimir Propp's Theory on Genesis of Magic Fairy Tales' Structure - Odessa: Autograph / CHE UNSA, 2009. - p. 50. In Engl.

Separate English supplement to the book: Olexander Kyryliuk. Weltanschauung Categories of Ultimate Bases in the Universal Culture Dimensions. - Odessa, Ukraine: Autograph/CHE UNAS - 2008. - 416 р. In Ukrainian.

Олександр Кирилюк. АНТИ-ПРОПП. Критика теорії В. Проппа зі структури чарівної казки та її генезису. - Одеса: Автограф / ЦГО НАН України. - 2009. - 50 с. (англ. мова).

Окремий додаток до книги (автореферат англійською):

Кирилюк О.С. Світоглядні категорії граничних підстав в універсальних вимірах культури. - Одеса: Автограф. - 2008. - 416 с.