The Research Of Propp’s Comedy Theory

Comedy, as the reflection and expression of human spirits and the real life, sprout since the time of ancient Greece and changed with the development of human society. The research on comedy also has a long history. All kinds of laugh and comedy culture are studied from the perspective of physiology, psychology and sociology, and different schools are formed, which leads the development of comedy culture and theories. Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp (1895-1970) as the remarkable language scientist of pre Soviet Union, one of the glorious representatives of Soviet folk art school, began to work on comedy in art and literature in his later years,<funny and laugh> is one of Propp’s major theoretical works on comedy, which was published by Soviet Art Press in 1976 (six years after his death). Propp discussed funny and laugh theory from different aspects, and gave facts proofs through detailed texts and folk culture stories, jokes, fables and other different folk culture cases. He not only quoted and commented on the existing theories of comedy research, but expressed his original view according to these theories, which has great theoretical research value.There are a lot of researches on <Morphology of the folktale>,< Historical source of magic story> and other books, but the theoretical research involved in comedy is seldom mentioned. Theoretical research on <funny and laugh> is much less. This thesis attempts to explain and summarize Propp’s comedy theories and the text and theory, so that the thesis can provide convenience for scholars who study life and smile phenomenon in literary. At the same time, it can also provide some theoretical guidance for us to study theories of comedy and literary text.This thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter introduces Propp’s life experience and his academic research activities, which prove that his academic activities are closely associated with the social background at that time. The second chapter researches Propp’s comedy theory from three aspects, including "Comedy and laugh", "The occurrence of laugh", "The social role of laugh". The third chapter introduces the folk characteristics of Propp’s comedy theory, which has a "Strong folk position", "Rich comedy material" and "The distinctive Carnival color", and through the comparison between Propp’s and Bakhtin’s understanding of folk culture and carnival culture to deepen the understanding of his comedy theories. Finally a summary is made to point out the core concept and value of Propp’s comedy theory.