Transposing Folktale Morphology to a Historical Novel: A Proppian Reading of The Pillars of the Earth

Abstract

The Pillars of the Earth, despite presenting itself as a historical novel, displays a narrative structure that consistently echoes the logic of the folktale. Its moral polarisation, its archetypal characters, and its pattern of narrative justice in which villains are punished and heroes rewarded are structural features that align closely with what Propp identified as the constitutive elements of the folktale. This convergence raises a question: to what extent can Propp's morphological model account for the narrative structure of Follett's novel, and where does it reach its limits?