Motif (literature).html



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In a narrative, such as a novel or a film, motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes. The narrative motif is the vehicle of means by which the narrative theme is conveyed.¹ The motif can be an idea, an object, a place, or a statement.

The flute in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is a recurrent motif that conveys rural and idyllic notions. The green light in The Great Gatsby and the repeated statement, "My father said that the reason for living is getting ready to stay dead," in William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying are examples of motifs. A motif can be something that recurs to develop the theme in a novel.

A motif can also be used to connect different scenes or points in time in works such as Slaughter House Five or Fight Club. Fight Club contains a number of motifs used to organize the minimalist writing style of Palahniuk such as the rules of fight club.

A motif differs from a theme in that a theme is an idea set forth by a text, where a motif is a recurring element which symbolizes that idea. The motif can also be more like the central idea behind the theme, such as courage or loyalty.

Techniques

There are several literary techniques used to convey a motif. The earliest appears to be leitwortstil, the 'the purposeful repetition of words' in a given literary piece that "usually expresses a motif or theme important to the given story". This dates back to the One Thousand and One Nights to connect several tales together in a story cycle and "to shape the constituent members of their story cycles into a coherent whole."²

Another technique is "thematic patterning", which is "the distribution of recurrent thematic concepts and moralistic motifs among the various incidents and frames of a story. In a skillfully crafted tale, thematic patterning may be arranged so as to emphasize the unifying argument or salient idea which disparate events and disparate frames have in common". This also dates back to the One Thousand and One Nights.³

Dispute

Some literary theorists believe that the motif is an ineffective descriptor in itself, as the use of a motif or pattern is, if intentional, interwoven in a larger scheme of the work, such as a theme (literature) or in symbolism. Those who disapprove of the motif in general understand its implications throughout analytical reading but require more support to uphold its existence.

See also

• Theme (literature)
• Motif (visual arts)
• Motif (music)
• Leitmotif
• Trope

References