Page 37 - Combine

International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD)
Special Issue on Innovative Development of Modern Research
Available Online: www.ijtsrd.com e-ISSN: 2456 – 6470

Uzbek Folktalemislabu: Motifs and

Applicability of Propp’s Functions

Kadirova Nargiza Arifovna

Senior Teacher, PhD at the Department of English Language in Humanities,
Bukhara State University, Bukhara, Uzbekistan
Fairy Tale - a traditional story written for children that usually involves imaginary creatures and magic. 1

ABSTRACT 7. Complicity 8. Villainy and lack
Fairy tales are very important for developing the worldview 9. Mediation 10. Counteraction
of children. In many cultures, they are used as an early 11. Departure 12. Testing
method of teaching kids the difference between good and 13. Reaction 14. Acquisition
bad, courage and cowardice, love and hatred, and many 15. Guidance 16. Struggle
other basic concepts a human must be able to differentiate. 17. Branding 18. Victory
To examine the very essence of the Fairy Tale, its history, 19. Resolution 20. Return
morphology, and structure, specialists have been trying to 21. Pursuit 22. Rescue
classify it in many different ways. However, modern 23. Arrival 24. Claim
scientists conclude that none of the existing methods of 25. Task 26. Solution
classification can be considered absolutely accurate. For 27. Recognition 28. Exposure
2
instance, the approach offered Wundt supposes division of 29. Transfiguration 30. Punishment
tails into 7 groups, but the definition of each group is vague 31. Wedding
and actual classification becomes a hard task, because a
In "Mislabu" the situation is a bit more complicated that in
single fairy tale may possess characteristics intrinsic to
several groups at once. The ten categories proposed by typical fairy tales. First of all, it consists of several seemingly
unconnected episodes, developing in parallel. Also at the
3
Volkov also do not stand up to criticism due to mix-up
beginning it is hard to identify the main hero. In general, the
arising, since one tale might contain elements allowing to
main hero is the cruel king: he resolves hard task and finds
attribute it to several categories at the same time. Aarne-
Thompson classification or Vladimir Propp's functions are the beauty he was willing to marry. The beauty helps him to
escape from pursuers, but at the end a new main hero
also not exhaustive as some scholars note.
appears and defeats the cruel king and marries the beautiful

KEYWORDS: function, motif, fairy tale, classification Mislabu. However, motifs and functions can be distributed in
relation to the cruel king, because the final winner did very
One of the basic causes of the classification problems is the little action.
extremely vast variety of fairy tale types, elements, motifs
First element: Absentation(Someone goes missing) appears
and plots. Analyzing the fairy tales of different nations
in Mislabu not at the beginning of the story line. Actually
readers can notice that there is a significant difference in there is no direct "missing" of something, but kings desire to
approach, philosophy and moral of tales. This is influenced find and marry Mislabu - a princess he had never seen – can
by history, culture, traditions, religion, geography and many
be attributed to this element according to Propps
other aspects. However, attempts to classify fairy tales show
classification. This element corresponds to motif of
that there are some basic points that belong to any folktale. "Searching for beloved" defined by Chernousova. Unusual
Such points can be seen in Aarne's classification and Propp's thing about this fairy tale is that the Absentation is described
list of functions, they are also noted by other scholars and
after a short story about an old gardener, who is not a main
literature specialists. character of the plot but appears several times along the tale
The analysis below will be dedicated to applying the to interconnect various elements and motifs into a single
categories proposed by Vladimir Propp to the Uzbek fairy action.
tale "Mislabu". And their correlation with the motifs defined
One more element of Absentation can be notice when the
by Chernousovа . king can't find his parrot and asks people for help, promising
4
Propp defined the obligatory functions and their sequence gold and high position in the kingdom to one who finds and
within the fairy tale as follows: brings the bird. This part of the fairy tale can be considered
1. Absentation 2. Interdiction as a short story within the story, and it is also used as a
3. Violation of interdiction 4. Reconnaissance "connector" for general plot parts.
5. Delivery 6. Trickery Element 2. Interdiction(Hero is warned). As soon as the main

hero in Mislabu seems to be the cruel king, the motif of
warning the hero should be addressed to him. Within the
1 Cambridge Dictionary.dictionary.cambridge.org.
2 W. Wundt, Probleme der Völkerpsychologie, Stuttgart, 1921 story king was warned twice: first, when the parrot told him
3 Волков Р.М. Сказка. Разыскания посюжетосложению народной that searching for the beautiful Mislabu will be a difficult
сказки, Харьков, 1924 task, and then, when an old man told him to give up the idea
4 Черноусова И. П. Структура и художественные функции of marrying Mislabu, because many young and strong men
диалога в русской волшебной сказке. Воронеж, 1994

ID: IJTSRD39884 | Special Issue on Innovative Development of Modern Research Page 32