Article

Name: History of segmentation and algorithmization of fiction texts on a level of plot. Part 1

Authors: B.E. Egorov

Saint-Petersburg Institute of History, Russian Academy of Sciences

Abstract: Segmentation of folklore and literary stories for the first time took place in the end of XIX century in the works of French scholars Ch. Bédier (fairy ta-les) and G. Polti (fiction drama). In the beginning of the XX century the research was continued by A. Aarne, A.N.Veselovsky, A.I. Nikiforov ( who was on the way to open a functional principle which was later elaborated by V.Y.Propp). The climax point of achievements in studies of the methodology of stories in the pre-structural period was a book «Morphology of the Folktale» written by V. Propp (1928), in which 31 elements (functions) were selected. V.Propp was primarily interested in syntagmatic construction of the plot. Later Cl. Levi-Strauss advised him to elaborate a «grammar» of the plot. V.Propp came close to open an algorithm of the plot, and formulae of development of the plot (its functions are placed in the order of cause and effect, and the consequent functions are related to the previous functions). The scholar was on the verge to open “a periodic table” for fairy tales.

Keywords: Plot, function, structure, segment, algorithm, Propp

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