A.N. Veselovsky’s Theory of Motive and Plot in the Reflection of a Folk Tale

Abstract

The article deals with the main provisions of the theory of motive and plot of the outstanding Russian philologist A.N. Veselovsky (1838-1906) in the light of a folk tale. At the archaic stage, as the scientist believed, the composition of the fairy tale obeyed the laws of syncretic consciousness and dualistic worldview, which determined the specifics of not only its existence, but also the logical and semantic basis of the fairy-tale model. With the transition to the religious-historical paradigm of public consciousness, there is a semiotic and morphological reorganization of the plot of the fairy tale. The task is to find out how the scientific method of differentiated study of motive and plot allowed Veselovsky to prove that the operating system of the motive is strongly connected with apperception and suggestion, and the plot - with combination and discourse, that the motive is directly related to fiction, and the plot - to the idea, but at the same time their commonality is expressed by the ideological and artistic concept.

Keywords

• motive
• plot
• historical poetics
• academician a.n. veselovsky
• folklore fairy tale