Русская сказка

The Russian Wonder-Tale

C1 · Advanced · non-fiction · 10 scenes · Premium story

An advanced non-fiction piece on the most recognisable body of Russian storytelling in the world, and on the two men who worked out what it actually is. The argument is that a wonder-tale is not a story but a grammar: Propp took a hundred of them apart in 1928 and found the same thirty-one functions in the same order every time, which is how illiterate tellers held hundreds of long texts for centuries without a book. It then asks where the grammar came from, and answers with initiation ritual, which is why Baba Yaga, who is not a villain and rarely eats anybody, must feed and steam the hero before she will tell him anything.

Read Русская сказка in Russian

Characters

Alexander Afanasyev (Александр Афанасьев) — Compiler, 1826–1871
Vladimir Propp (Владимир Пропп) — Scholar, 1895–1970
Baba Yaga (Баба-яга) — Threshold figure
The youngest son (Иван-дурак) — The hero

Vocabulary from this story

сказка — folk tale
сказитель — tale-teller
зачин — opening formula
концовка — closing formula
формула — formula
сюжет — plot
герой — hero
злодей — villain
даритель — donor
помощник — helper
царевич — prince, tsar's son
дурак — fool