Rules of Configuration

Perceiving the text's developing shape

Undermining—we know that stasis will be disrupted, and we expect that problems will be resolved. The sub-rule of chutzpah forces us to question the self-proclaimed greatness of Oedipus, and it’s why we kicked ourselves if we trusted Lizzy too much.


Balanced focus—books will focus on some central thing, as in David Copperfield, Emma, or a metamorphosis.


Balanced action—the other shoe must drop. Lydia’s stupidity must have some consequence.




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Rules of Coherence

Finding systems of unity among the details

Insufficient information—we know that holes in a text must be filled in.


Bundling of information—we find patterns that link characters or events. The Song of Solomon uses biblical names for certain characters, but not others.


Consistent reference—a signifier is linked to one signified. It might not be clear to us, but we assume that there is a way to unify discordant impressions. (Think of Piggy’s glasses. Perhaps you assume that they represent the hope of salvation through logic and technology. When they start to fall apart, you don’t say “well, I guess I was wrong.” You adjust.)





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Rules of Signification 

Assigning larger meanings to details

Source—who is speaking and how does that shape whatever information we are getting. “Once a bitch always a bitch, what I say.” Do we trust Jason?


Physical trait links—How you look is who you are. Gregory Peck is trustworthy and Peter Lorre isn’t. (often dependent on genre)


Enchainment of action—a puppy kicker is no good


Realism—conventions of standard human behavior apply to most texts


Causation—all events in a text have causes we can fathom. Gregor is a bug for some reason. We can somehow make sense of Raskolnikov’s decision to murder.


Ironic Voice—ideas in conflict must be remedied; opposites must be deciphered.



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Rules of Notice 

Attending to the most important details

Convention—rules of the genre—symbols for literary novels, suspicious people for mysteries, setting in Romantic texts


Key words—"suddenly", "realized", "truth", etc.


Repetition & Italics—Lolita has clues in italics. Words or phrases that are italicized or otherwise set apart from the rest of the text are meant to call the attention of the reader.  MacBeth repeats the word blood over and over. Repeated actions/ideas are meant to attract the attention of the reader and suggest importance.


Explicit highlights by author—this sounds odd, but think about Huck Finn’s first lines about “stretchers.” Twain is explicitly drawing our attention to a central idea in the novel. (“I am telling you” moments in a narration)


Epigraphs—An epigraph is a quote that comes before the beginning of a text and can serve to raise the expectations of the reader about events to come.


Metaphors and similes —The author may use these types of figurative language to draw attention to a certain aspect or idea in the text. Pay close attention to metaphors and similes.


Ruptures—an odd break in tone or narrative; when the turtle crosses the road in Grapes of Wrath (or when a new anonymous voice begins narrating, as in a mystery novel). 


Spacing and line breaks — Pay attention to how the author chooses to break up the text – it may be a signal for a change in the time structure (like a flashback), a change in narration, etc.


Privileged position—Title, subtitles, first lines, last lines, single sentence paragraphs. Titles and subtitles tell us where to focus our attention and provide a core around which to organize our interpretation.  A valid interpretation of a text will be able to incorporate the message or meaning of the first and last sentences (of a chapter or of the work as a whole). Authors often place important information in these positions.

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The Unspoken Rules of Reading

When reading you might find yourself asking: “How do I know what is important?” Rules of notice refers to the hidden narrative conventions which writers and readers rely on for generating meaning. According to narrative theoretician and practitioner Rabinowitz they are crucial to interpretation and “serve as a kind of assumed contract between author and reader — they specify the grounds on which an intended reading should take place.” (Rabinowitz) 

Click each asterisk (*) to find out more.

Rules of Notice 

Attending to the most important details *

Rules of Signification

Assigning larger meanings to details *

Rules of Configuration

Perceiving the text's developing shape *

Rules of Coherence

Finding systems of unity among the details *

Discovering a thesis

How do I come up with a line of interpretation – a thesis?

There is no easy answer to this but try to think of a thesis as the washing line on which the rest of your points are going to hang.  Hopefully, the following might provide you with some starting points:

• Identify the most important feature of content and ask yourself what is being suggested about that feature of content. 

• Alternatively, what is the most important aspect of style? You could point to imagery and structure in some instances as contributing a great deal to the way a particular theme is presented. 

• Look for contrasts. More often than not, short extracts will make use of significant oppositions – whether between ideas, sections of the text or perhaps such things as strands of imagery. 

• Development: is there an underlying sense of transition in the poem or extract – whether in terms of its ideas, the content, or its language and style? 

• Conflict: our interest in prose, poetry and drama very frequently comes from the establishment of some kind of central tension, whose resolution (or lack of it) is often responsible for maintaining our interest. 

• Why, in essence, do you think this is a good piece of writing?

Struggling with discovering or writing a thesis?  Contact us.

Key concepts: Form and Structure

These terms are often used interchangeably, resulting in the loss of a very useful distinction. It is worth keeping these concepts apart. Knowing the difference will allow you to 1) gain analytical precision and 2) perceive aspects of a poem or passage that may otherwise remain hidden. This short article will help clarify the different usage.

Form

... relates to the external shape of a text, determined by how it is presented on paper, organised by stanzas/paragraphs, lines, syllables, rhyme, justification – best thought of as a silhouette. It is a simpler thing to comment on because it is usually visible.

Structure 

... is more interesting because it goes beyond the visible – it is a matter of the internal development and relationship between parts: structure is about the internal skeleton and organs – best thought of as an X ray or CT scan, displaying the organic relationship between ideas, feelings and attitudes within a text. 

Example of the distinction:

The form of a sonnet is its 14 line length, its 8 line/6 line division and its rhyme scheme. Within that form the structure may be 8 lines of description leading to 6 lines of reflection, generalisation, resolution; or the mood may go from neutral to sombre, or from sombre and resentful to accepting.



Still not sure how to discuss structure and form in your commentary? Contact us.

Topic, Motif, Theme: What's the Difference?

Students often find it hard to distinguish between ‘motif’, ‘topic’ and ‘theme’. This is understandable since the terms are connected and are often used interchangeably in everyday life, without any clear distinction.

In this post we'll help you understand the differences between these terms so that you use them correctly in your course and in your assignments.

What is motif?

This is the simplest one to define. A motif is a real concrete element of the text that actually appears written on the page. Motifs are repeated again and again throughout a text and through this repetition they begin to symbolise bigger ideas. Remember this idea of bigger ideas because it is important when understanding the relationship between motifs, topics and themes.

What can be a motif?

Basically anything that’s repeated in a text. Most often, however, motifs are repeated images, actions, phrases or objects.

Some examples?

Bernarda’s Rod in The House of Bernada Alba is a great example of a motif. It is a concrete real object that appears a number of times in the text. On it’s own the literal, obvious or basic meaning or Bernarda’s Rod is simply that it is the walking stick that Bernarda uses to support herself. However, through repetition and the way that Lorca makes Bernarda use it, the rod comes to symbolise the bigger ideas of repression and state control. In some ways it might also be symbolic of the scepter (basically a heavy golden stick) that kings or queens, certainly in England, have.

Windows and doors in The House of Bernarda Alba are another good example of objects used as motifs. The literal, obvious or basic meaning of a window or door is, simply, the thing that you walk through or look through. If they appeared only once or twice in the text they wouldn’t really be that important but because Lorca refers to them so often and so obviously they come to symbolise the bigger ideas of a longing for freedom and, by contrast, the restrictions and lack of freedom that the girls experience.

The repetition of ‘The One’ in the Matrix films is a good example of how a phrase can be used as a motif. By itself, ‘the one’ is nothing special. However, because it is repeated so many times in the film we begin to think of it in capitals as ‘The One’ and the phrase comes to suggest Neo’s uniqueness and almost saviour-like or Christ-like nature. Furthermore, the repeated use of bullet time when filming the fight sequences in which everything slows down and Neo is able to dodge bullets or punches is a good example of an action being used as a motif. Again this motif underlines the fact that Neo is unique and capable of things that normal mortals are not.

What is a topic?

This is the confusing one because we often use the term THEME when actually we should be using the term TOPIC. We have already seen that motifs can be used to suggest or symbolise bigger ideas. Essentially those bigger ideas are what we call a topic. If you had to sum up in one or two words what a text is ‘about’ or what the main issues it is dealing with are then those would be the topics of the text.

Topics can be expressed very simply, in just one or two words. Consequently, they are very general and don’t go into very much detail. It is this lack of detail that is important because this is what distinguishes a TOPIC from a THEME: THEMES have more detail.

Examples of topics are easy to come up with – they are the things that we would normally (and erroneously) call themes. For example:

• The role of women. 
• The constructed nature of social roles. 
• Appearance vs. reality. 
• Freedom. 
• Dictatorship 
• Social control. 
• Love. 
• Loneliness.

So, what's a theme?

If a TOPIC is a very general, big idea of what a text is ‘about’ then a THEME is a much more detailed development of what the text says about that big idea. A theme often expresses the writer’s perspective on some aspect of human life.  A theme is not quite the same as the moral of a story (if there is one) because the moral tells us what the world should be like whereas the theme tells us what the world is actually like. Themes are important because they contain a message or set of assumptions about the way the world is.

Because themes are more developed and more complex, they cannot be summarised in one or two words, but can be in one or two sentences. Generally, a sentence about a theme will take a TOPIC idea and develop it further. Obviously a text can have more than one theme. It would be a mistake to assert that a text is ‘about’ just one thing.

Below are some examples of things which are both themes and not themes to help make it clear what exactly a theme is.



‘Female Clothing’:

This doesn’t say anything about the world and is just an aspect of the text, something that we can find written down on the page. If this aspect is repeated enough then it might become a motif which could suggest a bigger idea. In Kiss of the Spider Woman Molina continually dwells on the details of clothing of the women in the films that he talks about; but in no sense is Kiss about female clothing.


‘The Role of Women in Society’

This is a good example of a topic. It is a big idea that a text might be ‘about’ at a very vague and general level. We can see also how a motif could help suggest this topic. In Kiss of a Spider Woman, Molina’s fascination with female clothing may suggest that society has very definite ideas about how a woman should dress.

This could be expressed in the following way:

‘Society constructs different roles for its members, both male and female. These roles are arbitrary but people who do not conform to them are treated as ‘perverted’, immoral, wrong and to be excluded.’

The difference between TOPIC and THEME should now be fairly clear.


We have gone beyond the simple idea that Kiss of the Spider Woman is just ‘about’ the role of women and developed the idea into something really interesting and something which applies to both sexes. Now we can interpret the text as being ‘about’ how society has excluded (by sending to prison) two characters who do not fit the normal rules of how people should behave — Molina because of his sexual behaviour and Valentin because of his political behaviour. Furthermore, the fact that the characters do not fixed remain within their roles as political revolutionary or helpless homosexual suggests the idea that the roles that society constructs for people and that some of those people have constructed for themselves are arbitrary, made up and shifting.

Over to you ...

To help you identify the themes in a work you can ask yourself the following three key questions:



1) The main character / hero is part of which group or groups?

• Consider: gender, race, age, ethnicity, religion, social / economic position, time period, job

• Once you have figured this out make a statement about that person as if it were true of all people in that position.


2) The opponent is part of which group or groups?


• Do the same for the enemy. Bear in mind that, while heroes are almost always individuals enemies can be things as vague as governments, businesses, societies or philosophies.


3) The setting is part of what kind of area?

• Consider: geographically, economically, historically, country or city

• Bear in mind that certain areas of the world have stereotypes associated with them, which may vary from person to person or culture to culture. For example, according to Hollywood, America is the land of the free where anything is possible, whereas the Middle East is a terrifying place where anything can happen and women have no freedom.


An Example: In Harry Potter the main character is a young, inexperienced, white boy of indeterminate wealth, religion or social position who continually manages to succeed against the vastly stronger, more experienced and powerful evil enemies he confronts. Importantly he has been abandoned by his parents and has suffered the cruelty of living with the Dursley’s for years until Hagrid turns up and takes him off to Hogwarts. Just look at Harry! He could be any white English / Western child. The vagueness of his wealth, religion and social position and the disrupted state of his family life mean that almost any child can aspire to be Harry. Although it is very interesting that he is both white and a boy. Indeed, apart from Hermione, girls play a fairly predictable role as objects of love (Cho Chang), mother figures (Professor McGonagall), whiny hopeless helpless things (Moaning Myrtle) or damsels in need of rescue (take your pick). Ethnic minorities are even more sidelined – the Patil twins get a brief outing in the Goblet of Fire where they are Harry and Ron’s last choice of dance partners and, along with Cho Chang, that’s about it for non-white characters. The enemy varies from book to book but they are all less powerful versions of Voldemort who represents selfishness, power, domination, control and ruthlessness. The setting could clearly be anywhere in England / the West / the world. The fact that it is magical just takes it out of the real world and means that it is no longer tied to a particular location.


So what’s the theme? That the pure of heart (exemplified by the young, inexperience but basically good Harry) can over come any amount of evil with courage, faith, bravery, hard work and friendship. Because Harry could be anyone and the wizarding world could be anywhere this applies to everyone. This is a theme that occurs again and again in movies and novels: in The Lord of the Rings the young and inexperienced Bilbo (& friends) defeat Sauron and in Spiderman the equally young and selfless Peter Parker uses super powers to overcome various fantastic villains. However, it doesn’t only happen in fantasy: in Maid in Manhattan Jennifer Lopez’s lowly, hard working, honest, single mother character eventually overcomes various obstacles (albeit not quite evil) to get the man in the end. The idea that ‘the pure and the good eventually come good’ is a massive theme in Western culture and is found almost everywhere. So much so that we often assume it to be true in real life. In one sense this theme is clearly rooted in the bible where eventually, even if life is bitterly cruel and unbearably harsh, the good and pure eventually gain the ultimate reward of heaven.

Here are some alternative questions which can help you identify theme:

What is the Goal of the Main Character?

• This is often first of all in an obvious physical form – the boy / girl, the job, the sports victory, the car, the house, the career, … etc. There is a basically unlimited number of these actual physical goals.

• However, this physical goal often represents a more abstract goal. These are much more limited in number. A character can desire a goal because it represents:

Success / power Love Recognition Revenge Loyalty Freedom Authenticity (being real, man!) Affirmation (to gain the approval of others) Confidence (to gain approval from themselves)


What are the Obstacles? Obstacles can come in a number of different forms:
• People: parents, teachers, policemen, priests, the boss, the stubborn horse, the little sister, …

• Objects: mountains, the sea, the cold, an animal, a trap, …

• Abstract: government, society in general, racism, poverty, nature, fate, God, ignorance, …

What is the Turning Point / Climax? There is often a point in the story where the main character discover something or has a revelation about his goal. There may be a speech at this point can reveal the themes of the text.


What are the Last Words? Often at the end of a novel or text an author can’t resist a very direct and obvious reference back to one of the major themes. This might be in the form of a direct statement or a symbol. A good example of a symbolic ending would be the death of Adela (who represents freedom and rebellion) at the end of The House of Bernarda Alba. Bernarda’s subsequent statement about silence reinforces the idea that society / the government / religion is crushing the freedom and individuality of people at the time in rural Spain. Obviously these things don’t have to actually be the final, final words in a text. In a long novel they might not even be in the last chapter.


What is the Title? The title can sometimes help identify a theme. It may do this in a number of ways:

• As a symbol – the Spider Woman, suggests entrapment and deviousness

• By using the main character to stand for the theme – Bernarda Alba represents repression

• By directly stating the theme – we will be together From Here to Eternity


If you are still having difficult identifying themes and motifs in your work, contact us. If you are new to our services, ask for your free trial session.