Propp’s analysis of a few hundred Russian folk tales showed remarkable consistency in the sequence of narratemes, but you could certainly apply his work to other forms – that’s why I suggested looking at, say, Star Wars or Lord of the Rings – I think his work applies well – but yes of course novelists and short story writers play with narrative sequence so it won’t be as rigid as an oral art-form, like the folk tale.

I think what Propp usefully contributes is a methodology for unpacking any narrative – and just as he was being descriptive in his analysis of the Russian tales, so too, you could use his techniques in a descriptive analysis of a novel or short story. It might even be useful to compare/contrast the structures by showing, say, how a modern novel differs in narrative structure from the folk tale

Hope that helps

Cheers
Jerry

Your writing about Propp’s narrative structure is really helpful. A question, is it possible to apply this theory to other literary works, such as novel or short story? I have tried some, and some of the results are that the narratemes are there, but the order is different. Can I simply say that I have applied structuralism analysis, and the result is that the literary work I analized is not a folktale (since Propp says that the order may not be changed)?

Cheers,
Liza

Cheers
Jerry

I would like to know if it is possible to buy the Book about:
Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folktale.
Thanks.