Narrative Structures in Burmese Folk Tales
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Narrative Structures in Burmese Folk Tales By Soe Marlar Lwin

Chapter 3:  Methodology
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  • the dispatcher, who sends the Protagonist off
  • the Hero, who departs on a search (seeker-Protagonist), reacts to the donor, and weds at end
  • the false hero (or antihero or usurper), who claims to be the Protagonist, often seeking and reacting like a real Protagonist

    • The classifications of some of these narrative roles have to be broadened for the present study so that they can be applied to the narrative roles taken by various characters in different types of tales, including the animal tales. A major character carrying out the functional events in the plot will broadly be identified as the Protagonist, instead of the Hero or the Princess. Moreover, it will be more appropriate to define the two protagonists in some tales as Protagonist A versus Protagonist B, rather than Hero versus Villain, when they are competing on equal terms. Because a tale can have more than one major character, they will be identified as Protagonist A, B, C, etc., as they take the role of major characters for functional events in the tale. Following the classification of characters in each tale to the appropriate narrative roles, the functional events constituting a storyline will be identified.

    3.1.1. A Sample Analysis of Functional Events

    Tale 3: ‘Why the Snail's Muscles Never Ache?’ [sic]

    Distribution of characters to narrative roles:

    Protagonist A: The Snail

    Protagonist B: The Horse

    Helper: Cousin Snails