Mentor
Dr. Barry Mauer
Abstract
While the original Star Wars films have long been seen as a modern fairy tale (Gordon, 1978, p. 314), I argue that the animated television show Star Wars Rebels could also be considered a modern fairy tale due to its narrative structure. To evaluate Star Wars Rebels' structural elements, I examine its plot through Vladimir Propp’s functions of a folktale, as fairy tales and folktales share many structural elements. Vladimir Propp defined folktales around a series of 31 functions, with an emphasis on the importance of their order. Although there are certain areas where Rebels appears to diverge, careful examination reveals that the order of functions is maintained through close association of vital functions, which I have labeled function groups. Function groups are two or three functions that occur in close, logical succession and help preserve the vitality of order that Propp emphasized. Additionally, Propp’s emphasis on a character’s role defining their function in a story’s structure deviates from the elements that psychologist Carl Jung said was important to defining archetypes. These differences highlight Propp’s argument of how action defines characters. Given that folktales are only true folktales when kept in an oral tradition, I use the work of Walter Ong on orality and secondary orality to reconcile Propp’s theories to film and television. This paper argues Rebels to be a modern fairy tale in the realm of Ong’s secondary and evaluates where Propp’s series of functions align with modern storytelling techniques, emphasizing the importance of action in defining a fairy tale and preserving the order of functions.
Recommended Citation
Sorrentino, Nathaniel
(2024)
"Propp, Ong, and Jung: The Order of the Folktale Functions in Star Wars Rebels,"
The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 15:
Iss.
2, Article 5.
Available at:
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/urj/vol15/iss2/5
