Theorist- Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp

Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp was born 17 April 1895 in St. Petersburg to a German family. He attended St. Petersburg University (1913–1918) majoring in Russian and German philosophy. Upon graduation he taught Russian and German at a secondary school and then became a college teacher of German. He died 22 August 1970. He was a Russian and Soviet formalist scholar who analyzed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest narrative elements. Vladimir Propp developed a character theory for studying media texts and productions, which indicates that there were 7 broad character types in the 100 tales he analyzed, which could be applied to other media.

1.  The villain (struggles against the hero)
2. The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)
3. The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest)
4. The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)
5. Her father
6. The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)
7. The hero or victim/seeker hero, reacts to the donor, weds the princess

Propp's work was translated into English in the 1950s, by which time it had become core to the ideas of theorists such as Claude Lévi-Strauss and Roland Barthes, and was used in literary studies, anthropology and semiology. Propp's theories rely on 'good' and 'bad' characters. Propp has helped us to construct media personalities through the use of character roles which determined the general perception of any particular person. The theory of the same types of characters in different types of media is common however not used in everything. Many familiar programmes can be quickly viewed in terms of Propps theory, for example in some episodes of The Simpsons, Homer will be the hero, Marge the princess, Mr Burns the villain and other characters would act as donors/mentors or helpers. Sometimes films or television programmes will play with audience expectations, but usually you can clearly identify Propp’s character types. Putting Propp’s theory to music videos is a little more complex and can only really be used in narrative videos. In the Kill switch Engaged-Holy Diver video, the narrative is a very good way of putting the theory into action. You have a wicked wizard with evil dominions, the knight in shining armour, his horse and the damsel in distress (sleeping princess). Watching this video backs up the theory because the style and story of the fairy tale has been done many times before, especially in Disney films. In most narrative music videos the lead singer of the band is usually the hero, and in some videos the person with the most power e.g record label boss, ends up being the villain.


Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Propp