Folk Motif

A motif is the smallest indivisible content unit of a folklore (and literary) work — a stable plot element that recurs in different works: a prohibition and its violation, a miraculous birth, the testing of a hero, metamorphosis, the road. From motifs, as from 'bricks,' plots are built. The isolation and cataloguing of motifs is the basis of comparative folkloristics. Classic index systems are the tale-type index of Antti Aarne, Stith Thompson and Hans-Jörg Uther (the ATU system) and Stith Thompson's six-volume 'Motif-Index of Folk Literature.' The concept of the motif was developed by Alexander Veselovsky in his 'Historical Poetics,' who opposed the unchanging motif to the changeable plot. Ukrainian tale motifs were catalogued by Mykola Sumtsov. The analysis of motifs makes it possible to trace international migratory plots and the national distinctiveness of their embodiment.