Xhosa and Russian Folktales: A Structural Comparison

In many different cultures all over the world, the concept of oral literature and its functioning still exists. One of the best known is the folktale. Folklorist and formalist, Vladimir Propp (1895–1970), aimed to describe the story structure of Russian folktales according to a linear sequence of the acts of the characters. The somewhat surprising and obvious links between Propp’s material and Xhosa iintsomi prompted the choice of Propp’s model as the departure point for this comparative study of forty‑five Xhosa folktales.