This book offers a detailed exploration of the plot genotype, the functional structure behind the plots of classical fairy tales. By understanding how plot genotypes are used, the reader or creative writer will obtain a much better understanding of many other types of fiction, including short stories, dramatic texts and Hollywood screenplays.

Table of FiguresPrefaceAcknowledgementsNote on the AuthorNote on the Selection of the Texts1. The Origins of Plot Analysis2. Character Theory: from Aristotle to the Cambridge Ritualists3. Plot Structure: from Aristotle to the Cambridge Ritualists4. From Veselovskian Motif to Proppian Function5. A Proppian Analysis of Charles Perrault's Cinderella6. False and Real Sequences in Ashputtel7. The Robber Bridegroom: The Limits of Propp's Analysis8. Fitcher's Bird: A Second Horrific Fairy Tale Genotype9. The Frog Prince: The Doubled Pivotal Eighth Function10. Beauty and the Beast: The Irresolute Nineteenth Plot Function11. Puss-in-Boots: the Character of the Angelic Double12. Tom-Tit-Tot: The Character of the Diabolic Double13. Jack and the Beanstalk: The Hero's Journey14. Little Red Riding Hood: The Defeat of the Heroine in the Struggle15. The Story of the Three Bears: A Very Short Fairy Tale16. ConclusionAppendix 1: The Formal Representation of 'The Fox and the Crow'BibliographyIndex