The Morphology of the Heroic Story “Babr-e Bayān” Based on Vladimir Propp's Theory

Some great thinkers worked in the field of narratology including Vladimir Propp. Studying a large number of Russian fairy tales, Propp could define a consistent pattern for these tales; So, he identified 31-function pattern. Once the theories of formalism and constructivism were formed and popularized, Propp developed This type of format and structural analysis of stories. According to the mythical story plot it seems that we can find Vladimir Propp's claimed characters in Babr-e Bayān poem, whose author is unknown, and try to follow the functions. We investigate three stories in this poem: Rostam's battle with an aquatic animal called Babr-e Bayān, making Babr-e Bayān cloth from the skin of the aquatic animal for Rostam, and Faramarz conception; the stories include many fictional propositions which can be examined through the morphological components of the story.  

This is an analytical-descriptive article which attempts to investigate the structure of the epic poem of Babr-e Bayān, from an unknown author, based on the theory of Vladimir Propp. The background of the study includes the books of morphology of fairy tales and the historical roots of the fairy tales by Vladimir Propp; also, people such as Todorov, Bremond and Greimas present some ideas about structural analysis of narrative based on Propp's theories. In this regard, there are some articles such as: Criticism of Sequences of Hero's Functions in Propp's Theory of Morphology (Based on the morphology of three stories in Shahnameh) by Khavar Qorbani and Keyvan Gourk, Morphology of Mazandaran war story based on Propp Theory by Bahram Jalalipoor, and Analysis and comparison of the narrative structure of Nezami’s tales, black & sandal domes from Haft Paykar based on Vladimir Propps’ morphological patterns of fairy tales by Fereshteh Naseri, Abdulhossein Farzad, Amir Hossein Mahoozi. However, according to my investigations there are no independent research about the morphilogy of Babr-e Bayān poem based on Propp's theory. This is a library research method article which is done by analytical description of the text.

Functions pattern in Babr-e Bayān poem According to the 31 functions in Babr-e Bayān poem and the narrative process stages, and based on the 6 stages of planning for the events, complication, transfer, encountering, return, and recognition, which is the stage for functions appearance, narrative structural pattern can be as follows:β ƴ δ ζ εη ϴ AaBC ↑DEF GHJIK ↓ PrRsOL MQEXTUW All of the Propp’s functions can be find in the 6 stages of planning in this epic poem. All the functions can be observed in a symbol:β ƴ δ ζ εη ϴAaBC↑DEFGHJIK↓ PrRsOLMQEXTUW these functions indicate that this epic story is consist of a general movement and some internal movements. 31 functions can be find in the general movement. Another issue is that the story is made of the Propp’s general confrontational movements:M_________W The movements contributed directly to the balance of the stories and any problem will cause the loss of this balance, so by reaching to some kind of final function they return to the story again. A story can consist of one or more movements. The movements can also have different movements. However, it can be also a single story. Meanwhile, these movements excite the story and determine the main structure and theme of the story. The movements of Babr-e Bayān are as follow:β____________ δ However, it is necessary to consider two inner movements that occur inside the main movement, since they upset the balance of the narrative. Inside the main movement of the Babr-e Bayān, removing the two movements of “Alborz and Zal confrontation and blackmail on him” and “Galimine Goosh confrontation and submitting to Rostam” also should be considered however, However, they have not caused complexity and disrupted the norm of the story. The general movement of Babr-e Bayān is as follows:Babr-e Bayān crisis which leads to the people complain and the India opinion against him (crisis 1) Killing Babr-e Bayān by Rostam (balance) In this poem, the M__W can be find in a general movement. Motivational elements (Babr-e Bayān should be killed because he injures the Indians) and violence (Babr-e Bayān damages the property of the Indians and set fire to everywhere) affect the functions. Prop also suggested another movement organization based on content of the story:- extension through function of H-I (war and conflict) - extension through function of M-N (hard work) - extension through two functions of H-I and M-N (conflict and hard work) - extension with no function

The investigation showed 7 characters among the poem all characters. However, some characters played integrated roles; such as Galimine Goosh who has shown not only as the bad man but also found the role of a collaborator through some events. 31 functions of Propp could be find in the morphological representation but not sequentially. Extension of functions was found in the form of conflict-victory which seems that many epic stories follow this extension pattern due to their structure. It seems that Babr-e Bayān is a case which can remove an ambiguity in Shahnameh; despite some opinions who know Babr-e Bayān as a kind of tiger, it, Patyāre, is an aquatic animal that is killed by Rostam and then making cloth from its skin.