Theme (literature)
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- For a topical guide to this subject, see Outline of fiction.
A theme is a broad idea, message, or lesson that is conveyed by a work. The message may be about life, society, or human nature. Themes often explore timeless and universal ideas and may be implied rather than stated explicitly. Along with plot, character, setting, and style, theme is considered one of the fundamental components of fiction.[1]
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[edit] Etymology
The word 'theme' comes from the Old French word thesme (French: thème), from [Latin] thema, from Ancient Greek θέμα (théma), from τίθημι (tithemi), meaning “‘I put, place’”, which in turn is reduplicative from the Proto-Indo-European word *dʰeh₁-, meaning ‘to put, place, do’.
[edit] Classic themes
Themes differ from culture to culture, but some themes appear in many cultures, sometimes arising from their roots in the oral traditions, including mythology.
[edit] Techniques
Various techniques may be used to express themes.
[edit] Leitwortstil
Leitwortstil is the the purposeful repetition of words in a literary piece that usually expresses a motif or theme important to the story. This device dates back to the One Thousand and One Nights, also known as the Arabian Nights, which connects several tales together in a story cycle. The storytellers of the tales relied on this technique "to shape the constituent members of their story cycles into a coherent whole."[2]
This technique is also used frequently in classical Hebrew narratives.[3]
[edit] Thematic patterning
Thematic patterning is "the distribution of recurrent thematic concepts and moralistic motifs among the various incidents and frames of a story. 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 technique also dates back to the One Thousand and One Nights.[4]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Obstfeld, 2002, p. 1, 65, 115, 171.
- ^ Heath, Peter (May 1994), "Reviewed work(s) Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights by David Pinault", International Journal of Middle East Studies (Cambridge University Press) 26 (2): 358-360 [359-60]
- ^ Alter, Robert, Art of Biblical Narrative, pp. 92-95
- ^ Heath, Peter (May 1994), "Reviewed work(s): Story-Telling Techniques in the Arabian Nights by David Pinault", International Journal of Middle East Studies (Cambridge University Press) 26 (2): 358-360 [360]
[edit] References
- Obstfeld, Raymond (2002). Fiction First Aid: Instant Remedies for Novels, Stories and Scripts. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books. ISBN 158297117x.
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