Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp (Russian: Владимир Яковлевич Пропп; 29 April 1895 – 22 August 1970) was a Soviet formalist scholar who analyzed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements.
A collection of lectures on the study of fairytales (although Propp insists that skazka is not exactly the same genre as fairytale, structurally speaking), not quite finished - some places are just brief notes about what he wanted to cover. Half of it is history of fairytale studies, mainly in Russia, and some discussion of methodology. The other half is overview of three types of fairytales, mainly focusing on "magic fairytales" - I expect this was mostly a summary of his "Morphology of the magic fairytale".
This is interesting for the methodological discussion, but for focus on the actual fairytale stuff it would be better to read the "Morphology...".
This has been such a wonderful read and I'm sure I'll go back to it several times as I do more research. An excellent primer for anyone who wants to read Russian Folktales and really understand the importance of those works and the commonality in theme as well as structure to other Russian Folktales one might encounter.
To study the Russian folktale is to study a pillar of Russian history. Its to delve into the minds and peoples who crafted one of the biggest and oldest empires in history. Propp's book is the foundational grandfather piece of literature for those wish to acquire knowledge of this. It spans the definition, the study, the forms, the classifications, the symbolism, as well as the parts. Propp is noted here by himself as being more than the founder of folktale's morphology system, he becomes noted here for the symbolism he stresses about the Russian Folktale and what this brings to the people as well as the study of their past. Incredible text and companion.
I think that every person who wants to be a writer/screenplay writer/any kind of storyteller must read this book. And to be fair, it's actually called "The Historical Roots of the Wonder Tale" (something like that). The author gives tons of examples from folktales from all over the world (but bases his study primarily on Russian folktales, that's true). It's not an easy read, in my opinion, but it is an exciting and tremendously useful one.