Narrative as a memory technology: from Propp to Ricoeur

The article analyzes the role of narrative as an active mechanism of memory reconstruction, combining Vladimir Propp's folkloric perspective with cognitive psychology and philosophy. The author argues that memory is not a passive archive, but a dynamic system that utilizes stable schemas (such as Propp's functions) to organize variable experiences. Drawing on Frederic Bartlett's concepts and the Self-Memory System model, the text explains how narrative structures reduce cognitive load and allow for the maintenance of identity continuity despite the passage of time and the transformation of memories. The overall conclusion is that identity does not consist of immutability, but in the ability to create a coherent configuration of events in an interpretative process, which brings individual memory mechanisms closer to the stability of folk traditions.