Max Lüthi (1909 in Bern – 1991 in Zürich) was a Swiss literary theorist.
[1] His first book is the field's foundational text, "a classic, a definitive statement about the nature, style, and form of the folktale genre in its European variety.
"[2] Lüthi's aim was to arrive at a "phenomenology of folk narrative as we find it in Europe" and "establish the essential laws of the genre.
"[3] He identified five aspects of all folktales: one-dimensionality, depthlessness, abstraction, isolation, and all-inclusiveness.
According to his obituary, he saw himself as among the last to undertake "narrative research of the old-fashioned kind.