Introducing Themes and Motifs

Themes in Literary Texts

In this course, Dr Kate Aughterson (Independent Scholar) explores themes in literary texts. In the first module, we introduce themes and motifs. In the second module, we look further at themes with reference to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (1985) and David Almond's Skellig (1998). In the third module, we turn to motifs in literature, before turning to development of themes within a narrative in the fourth module. In the fifth and final module, we look at eight questions to approach how to further analyse thematic content in unseen extracts.

Introducing Themes and Motifs

In this lecture, we discuss themes and motifs in literature, focusing in particular on (i) the familiarity of themes and motifs in everyday life, (ii) The distinction between themes and motifs, (iii) The application of themes and motifs in literary analysis, (iv) the Harry Potter series as an example to illustrate motifs and themes.