Vladimir Propp (1895–1970)

Very, very dry but interesting. The book describes how to study or breakdown folktales into components using quasi-mathematical formulas to reveal their morphology or form. This digestion of the folktale and the fairy-tale subset can allow for new plots and stories to be revealed or formulated by simply substituting the values (occurrences) in the variables representing the components though the formula itself may change depending on the general "shape" of the tale itself. I found it interesting but a little hard to read fortunately the text is short at around 100 pages. If this really is your thing then this book will be interesting if not then stay far away!… (mer)

Extremely 'important,' brilliant, dry as dust structuralism. It pleasingly falls into place in the history of literary theory (structuralism as a better way of understanding literary form than pure historical reconstructions), and is as detailed as you'd expect. It should also be helpful for those who read or write fairy tales, which, for the uninitiated, is a very hip thing to do at the moment. For those who don't want to do history of theory, or fairy tales, this book will be fairly unhelpful. It might even be painful. It should probably be avoided.

That said, the cover is astonishingly well designed. Well done to whoever did that.… (mer)