Review by Choice Review
Since recent comprehensive studies, such as Charles Muscatine's The Old French Fabliaux (CH, Nov '86), have devoted comparatively little attention to narrative structure in the fabliaux, Schenck's monograph makes a welcome contribution. Her analysis, following Propp's methodology of identifying constituent funtions and roles, has been in the critical marketplace since the late 1970s. But constructive criticism has led to some refinements and modifications, and it is a service to fabliau scholarship that we should now have her formalist approach fully articulated. That facet of the study is augmented by chapters examining the fabliaux as works in the ironic mode, and attempting, on the basis of established structural features, to identify their precise social milieu. A number of appendixes offer detailed illustration of how the Proppian formula is reflected in specific fabliaux. There is also a useful bibliography, but users should note that it does not record material published after 1982-83, and that cited articles by Muscatine, Olson, and Bloch have all been superseded by books. Appropriate mainly for graduate students.-R.J. Pearcy, University of Oklahoma
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
