The Structural Study of Oral Literature

ion,. but will vary according 'to the focus of attention of-the reacting dram'atis personae, There does, "however, eXist · a predeminant focus unit coinciding best with a concise vel'sion of the tale and allowing to'logically reconstruct' the ~ctions and events necessary ,'for pr~erving its meaning. The talesas ' a whole consists of o'ne or more epis04es whose volume and limitS must be detive4 from the ongoing: plot,. Propp.'s cfrcular reasoning of defining the episode ("move") as a certain sequence of rnotifernes and then proving the identity of motifemic sequen<:es for this very episode suggests the necessity of an "external" definition of the latter, i.e. a defInition not based on the serial occurrence of certain action units. hi th~ present work ithas I;>een attempted to guarantee the independence of episode ("move") und structural pattern (recurring series of motifemes'in different tales)'by 'defining the former as a series of iriterrelated events, which 1) migh~ eXist a~ an independent nuclear t~ and 2) whose scheme of motifemes constitutes a logically closed and ' coherent whole. The minimum of an episode can, be ,described ' as a coilflict and its .solutign or att~nipted solution. Acfion-complexeS inserted be. twe.en' those units ' that are 'instrumental for the' .(atfempted) ,solution, as the v';USuing and acquiring of help, by the above definition are nof to be co~ sidered as autoilomol,lS episodes; since they prove t() be meaningl~s, without the fraine of reference of the comprehensive series of events. It is important to note, that the criterium of considering the significance of an action for the plot, while allowing the distinction of instr\lmental acts from the , very solut:U;n~of the 'conflict, does not provide a, means fot distinguishing between episodes and simply 'extended action sequences. The above argument implie$, that the structural pat'terns isolated have not been presupposed, the . present analysis being ·a test of their relevance, (a proced~re followed by Dundes 1964:61), but have exclusively 'been derived from, the narratives themselves, the 'pro~dure . being inductive and emic rather than deductive-hypothetical.