On Functional-Typological Plot of “Little Red Riding Hood” in European and Armenian Contexts

Abstract

The article takes into theoretical findings by Vladimir Propp, Alan
Dundes, Yuri Lotman, as well as considers the material in a semiotic
and typological key. In typological terms, the motifeme (Kenneth
Pikeís term) is the ìdivergenceî between the primary European
ìinvariantsî (Perrault, the Brothers Grimm), as well as, their trans-
positions, ìemanationsî in Armenian translations and transpo-
sitions.
The motifeme and typological analysis of the empirical material
showed that the version of ìLittle Red Riding Hoodî by Perrault
was addressed to the adult recipient while the version of the same
tale by the Brothers Grimm is addressed to the children. Recipients
and cultural context (Enlightenment, Romanticism) played an important
role in the processing of folklore material. The motifeme and
functions of the fairy tale played a significant role in the construction
of the authorís narration.
Functional (or motiphemic) and typological analysis of texts
shows that both the version of Perrault and that of the Brothers Grimm
have many motifemes taken from the fairy tale. However, the texto-
logical difference between the tales lies in the fact that high didac-
ticism and the presentation of cognitive motifeme in the version of
the Brothers Grimm indicate a relatively high authorial interference
into the language of the narration of the fairy tale.
In the nineteenth century West Armenian Literature, the theme
of ìLittle Red Riding Hoodî was touched upon twice. In 1861,
Ambrosius Kalfayan published in Paris not the translation but the
retelling of the fairy tale of ìLittle Red Riding Hoodî. If the translation
was in some sense a ìtracing-paperî of the primary text (Perrault),
then, in comparison with the ìliteralî translation, the ìretellingî of
the plot moved the correlated text much more further from the
European ìprimary sourcesî. The author of the second version of
the plot of ìLittle Red Riding Hoodî was the Armenian satirist Hakob
Paronyan (1843ñ1891), who published the text under the title ìRed
Roseî (1876), which is actually the hybrid version of European
ìprimaryî texts. Typological analysis has shown that for the
Armenian versions the version of Perrault is the one that has mostly played the role of the primary source, as in the nineteenth century
West Armenian writers were mostly French speaking, and for this
reason the reception of French literature is more apparent.