Stith Thompson
| Stith Thompson | |
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| Born | March 7, 1885 Bloomfield, Kentucky, United States |
| Died | January 13, 1976 (aged 90) Columbus, Indiana, United States |
| Nationality | American |
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Stith Thompson (March 7, 1885 – January 13, 1976) was an American scholar of folklore. He is the "Thompson" of the Aarne-Thompson classification system, which indexes certain folktales by their structure and assigns them AT numbers. He also developed an alpha-decimal motif-index system (A~Z followed by numeral) for cataloging individual motifs.
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Biography[edit]
Stith Thompson, born in Bloomfield, Nelson County, Kentucky, on March 7, 1885 as the son of John Warden and Eliza (McCluskey) Thompson moved with his family to Indianapolis at the age of twelve. He attended Butler College and obtained his BA degree from University of Wisconsin. For the next two years he taught high school in Portland, Oregon, where he learned Norwegian. He earned his master’s degree in English literature from the University of California, Berkeley in 1912. He studied at Harvard University from 1912 to 1914; taught English at the University of Texas, Austin from 1914 to 1918; and obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1919.
Thompson joined the English faculty of Indiana University (Bloomington), teaching composition. Interested in traditional ballads and tales, he organized summer institutes on the subject at the university that ran from the 1940s to the 1960s. These led, in 1962, to Thompson and another preeminent student of folklore, Richard Dorson, founding the University's Folklore Institute - still active as of 2012[update]. In 1976, Thompson died in Columbus, Indiana.[1]
While Thompson wrote, co-wrote, or translated numerous books and articles on folklore, he became arguably best known for his work on the classification of motifs in folk tales. His six-volume Motif-Index of Folk-Literature (1932–37) is considered the international key to traditional material.
Other works[edit]
Thompson's 1954 article for The Filson Club Historical Quarterly entitled "The Beauchamp Family" continues in use by genealogists as of 2011[update].[2] In this article Thompson states that he is descended from a Costin Beauchamp (b.1738) from Somerset Co., Maryland which extends back to John Beauchamp one of the members of the Plymouth Company.[3]
Stith Thompson motif index[edit]
Below is a crudely sampled list from the entire index.[4]
- A. Mythological motifs
- A0-A99. Creator
- A21 Creator from above
- A21.1. Male and female creators
- A21 Creator from above
- A0-A99. Creator
- B. Animals
- C. Tabu
- D. Magic
- D800-D1699 Magic Objects
- D800 Magic objects
- D1080 Magic weapons
- D1081 Magic swords
- D1081.1 Sword of magic origin
- D800-D1699 Magic Objects
- E. The Dead
- F. Marvels
- G. Ogres
- G200-G299 Witches
- H. Tests
- J. The Wise and the Foolish
- K. Deceptions
- L. Reversal of Fortune
- M. Ordaining the Future
- N. Chance and Fate
- P. Society
- Q. Rewards and Punishment
- R. Captives and Fugitives
- S. Unusual Cruelty
- T. Sex
- U. The Nature of Life
- V. Religion
- W. Traits of Character
- X. Humor
- Z. Miscellaneous Groups of Motifs
External links[edit]
- Online version 'Motif-Index of Folk-Literature'
- A Search Engine of Stith Thompson's 'Motif-Index of Folk Literature' made available by the Center for Symbolic Studies
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Stith Thompson |
References[edit]
- ^ Eldon S. Branda. "THOMPSON, STITH". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
- ^ Genealogies of Kentucky Families, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc, pages 9-47, 1981.
- ^ Genealogies of Kentucky Families, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc, page 10, 1981.
- ^ Thompson, Stith (2006). The Folktale (reprint). Kessinger Publishing. pp. 488–. ISBN 1425486568. More than one of
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