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The optional question this month is
November 4 question - As a writer, do you have favorite themes that you like to explore in your stories? If so, what are they?
Why yes I do! I write because I am plagued with questions about why humans do what they do - or even why I do the things I do.
Of course one must ask the question - what is theme in literature?
Wikipedia describes theme in literary works as "In narratology, literary criticism, film studies, dramatics, and related disciplines, a theme is any major topic, subject, or message within a story.
They go on to mention commonly found themes such as love, war, betrayal, loyalty and so forth.
Susan Bell in her most excellent book The Artful Edit talks about leitmotif in regard to theme. She quotes the Oxford English Dictionary definition of leitmotif as "a recurrent idea or image in a literary work."
I think theme is what you want to express in your novel and leitmotif is one way to subtly emphasize it. I would say my most common themes are justice, equality, the oppression of the poor, women, and people of colour. My most common leitmotif in Little Birds are, not surprisingly - little birds - their fragility, their worth and so on. In The Crooked Knife it is the crooked knife as a symbol held by the indigenous people and the settler people of Labrador. In both books there is a common theme of the landscape of Labrador as both wild and vulnerable. In the novel I'm writing now, Tales of the Dispossessed, the main themes are the strength of community, our differences and the healing quality of sharing stories. The leitmotifs are the mountains, the garden and the story telling.
In both theme and leitmotif I think a light hand is needed. I am not interested in reading a novel, or indeed even non-fiction, that is heavily didactic - too preachy. The leitmotif has for me the feel of the rhythm of the piece - it helps the reader feel the resonance of your themes. One of the things I dread though is that my leitmotifs become like a nervous tic - showing up every time I feel a little nervous about whether the reader has got it.
a tilt in Labrador - much like the one in Little Birds
What themes show up in your work and do you distinguish between the two descriptions I've shared?
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