Analysis of Fairy Tale Adaptations by Vladimir Propp’s Approach Based on The Example “Snow White”

Russian folklorist Vladimir Propp published his work “Morphology of the Folktale” in 1928. In his work, he aimed to define the structural features of tales. For this reason, based on the Russian tales he studied, he determined some behaviours or events that bring motion into tales, which he named as “function”. He theorised that 7 characters took over the functions, which he defined as 31 pieces. According to this, the number of characters and functions does not change, while the sequence of functions can. Besides, functions can be repeated many times in the same tale. Propp’s approach is still used as a research method in written literature. The aim of this work is to apply this method to adaptations. In this way, the features of tales that emerge when tales are transferred from oral literature to written literature and later on from visual to audial dimensions can be observed. A change is commonplace due to the length of the film, the touches of the scriptwriter and the director and even the characteristics of the cast. Henceforth, the fabulous images we formed in our minds either as a reader or an audience are determined by other people. At this point it is important to identfy the differences that arise within the adaptation, without ignoring the difference between a movie like a tale and a fabulous movie. As mentioned earlier, this can be achieved only by Propp’s method of structure analysis. This method enables us to find which sequences are changed, omitted or added. Furthermore, it is also possible to find behaviours that make adaptations vivid although they are not among Propp's 31 functions. Lastly, it is also possible to determine who has undertaken the functions that belong to Propp or those which have emerged recently and data concerning the original text can be collected. In conclusion, in this article, “Snow White” that was written by the Grimm Brothers and another tale adaptation based on it, has been divided into sequences, studied and variables have been put forward by applying this method that is used when studying tales in life. Moreover, the motions added to the functions apart from those of Propp’s, have been explained