THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE SYSTEMATIZATION AND CLASSIFICATION OF MOTIFS IN FICTION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47390/SPR1342V5I9Y2025N12Keywords:
literary motif; systematization; classification; theme; plot; archetype; leitmotif; chronotope; motifeme; Thompson Index; Frenzel Dictionary; intertextuality; national-cultural interpretation.Abstract
In this article, the theoretical foundations for systematizing and classifying literary motifs are analyzed. Drawing on the views of scholars such as Veselovsky, Tomashevsky, Garmash, Meletinsky, Jung, and Frye, it elucidates the semantic, structural, and thematic interpretations of the motif, as well as the interrelations among motif-theme-plot; by their function within the plot, connecting (dynamic) and free (static) motifs are distinguished. By scope and origin, traditional and individual (leitmotiv) types are identified; across genres (lyric, epic, dramatic), predominant motifs are considered; and by content-imagery characteristics, a system of mythological, situational, action, imagistic, characterological, landscape, spatial (linked to the chronotope), and psychological motifs is proposed. Within a comparative-historical approach, the role of Thompson’s motif index and Frenzel’s dictionary is demonstrated, and examples substantiate the national-cultural interpretations of motifs and the processes of their migration and transformation. On the basis of the motifeme-allomotif pair, the author defines criteria (substantive essence, functional role, and genre and cultural conditioning) and presents a conceptual model for the practices of intertextual analysis, translation, comparative literary studies, and for building a corpus of motifs.
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