VLADIMIR PROPP
This Russian linguistic was born on 17 April, 1895, in St. Petersburg.
Between 1914 and 1918 Propp studied Russian and German philology at St. Petersburg State University and was a faculty member of the Department of Russian Literature until his death in 1970.
After collecting hundred of stories from oral tradition in his country, Propp analysed the deep structure of those tales and identified certain patterns and recurrig roles that represented the imagination of the popular culture. In addition, he found out a series of functions which appeared in the construction of the characters and settings of the narratives.
He published those findings in 1928 in his Morphology of the Folk Tales where he extended the Russian Formalist apprach to the study of the the basic components of Russian folk stories.
Propp argued that folk tales were born of popular imagination and developed over generations in different communities.
He also wrote The Historical Roots of Fairy Tales (1946), Russian Heroic Epics (1958) and Russian Agrarian Feast-days (1963).
He was recognized as one of the inventors of structuralism. His successors, Roland Barthes, Claude Levi-Strauss and A.J. Greimas, spred Propp's taxonomy to look for the narrative elements in the whole contemporary culture.
Propp identified different types of characters and kinds of actions in a hundred traditional Russian folk tales and was able to arrive at the conclusion that there were thirty-one generic functions and seven sorts of heroes who appeared like archetypes common for all fairy tales. Although these constant elements were not present in every story, he discovered that all the narratives he analysed, displayed the functions in a unvarying sequence. He highlighted five categories of elements that define the tale as a whole:

• Functions as dramatis personae (character roles of the fairy tale)
• Conjunctive elements (announcement of misfortune).
• Motivations (reasons and aims)
• Forms of appearance of the dramatis personae.
• Attributive elements or accessories.

The thirty-one elements Vladimir Propp pointed out are the following :

1. ABSENTATION: a member of the family abandons the home environment for some reason.
2. PROHIBITION: the hero is warmed against something.
3. TRANSGRESSION: the prohibition is violated because the hero ignores the interdiction and goes ahead.
4. RECONNAISSANCE: the hero and the villain come into contact for first time. The villain makes an attempt at searching for something valuable or trying to catch someone.
5. DELIVERY: the villain receives information about the victim.
6. TRICKERY: the villain tries to gain confidence of his victim.
7. COMPLICITY: the hero acts in a way that helps the villain without knowing it.
8. VILLIANY and LACK: the villain causes some harm to one member of the family or a member lacks something.
9. MEDIATION: misfortune is made known by the hero who also discovers the villain's performance.
10. COUNTER-ACTION: the hero makes the most important decision to provoke a turning point in the story.
11. DEPARTURE: the hero leaves home.
12. TEST: the donor tests the hero to prepare him for the reception of magic support.
13. REACTION OF THE HERO: he fails the test.
14. GIFT: the hero is given a magical object.
15. TRIP: the hero is transferred to another kingdom to search for an object.
16. STRUGGLE: the hero and the villain face off in direct combat.
17. BRAND: the hero is wounded.
18. VICTORY: the hero defeats the villain or the latter is killed while sleeping/in combat or banished.
19. AMENDMENT: misfortune is resolved.
20. RETURN: the hero comes back home.
21. PERSECUTION: the hero is pursued or someone tries to kill him.
22. HELP: the hero is rescued and saved from pursuit.
23. UNRECOGNIZED hero arrives home.
24. FALSE HERO presents and claims achievements that are not founded.
25. DEFFAULT TASK: a difficult and complex mission is given to the hero.
26. COMPLIANCE: the hero successes when carrying out the difficult mission.
27. RECOGNITION: the hero is recognized as such.
28. UNMASKING: the false hero is exposed.
29. TRANSFIGURATION: the hero changes his look.
30. PUNISHMENT: the villain is punished.
31. WEDDING TRIUMPHANT: the hero rescues the princess, marries her and is given the throne.