Theme
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Photo: A daguerreotype of Edgar Allan Poe, author of Tales of Mystery & Imagination
Illustration: El amor y la muerte (English: Love and Death) is plate 10 from the Caprichos by Francisco Goya.
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A theme is a subject of a talk or an artistic piece; a topic; a recurring idea; a motif. In music it refers to the main melody of a piece of music, especially one that is the source of variations.
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Etymology
From Old French tesme (French: thème), from Latin thema, from Ancient Greek θέμα (théma), from τίθημι (tithemi, “I put, place”), reduplicative from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put, place, do”) (whence also English do).
By field
In literature
In contemporary literary studies, a theme is the central topic a text treats.
The most common contemporary understanding of theme is an idea or concept that is central to a story, which can often be summed in a single word (e.g. love, death, betrayal). Typical examples of themes of this type are conflict between the individual and society; coming of age; humans in conflict with technology; nostalgia; and the dangers of unchecked ambition. A theme may be exemplified by the actions, utterances, or thoughts of a character in a novel. An example of this would be the theme loneliness in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, wherein many of the characters seem to be lonely. It may differ from the thesis—the text's or author's implied worldview.
In visual art
In the visual arts, a theme is a broad idea or a message conveyed by work done in a visual experience, such as a performance, a painting, or a motion picture. This message is usually about life, society or human nature. Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a work. Themes are usually implied rather than explicitly stated. Deep thematic content is not required in a visual work; however, some observers would say that all visual work inherently projects some kind of outlook on life that can be taken as a theme, regardless of whether or not this is the intent of the author.
Themes and sensibilities
Themes of the Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia:
absurd - abnormal - alternative - anti - avant-garde - banned - bizarre - camp - canonical - clandestine - classic - common - controversial - counterculture - cult - decadent - eccentric - eclectic - ephemeral - elitist - erotic - esoteric - excessive - extravagant - exotic - experimental - everyday - fantastic - forbidden - gay - gothic - gratuitous - grotesque - hermetic - hidden - horror - illegal - incongruous - independent - intellectual - irrational - kinky - kitsch - libertine - macabre - meta- - modern - monstrous - natural - nobrow - obscure - occult - odd - offbeat - offensive - original - outsider - perverse - postmodern - queer - radical - rare - revolutionary - scatological - sensational - snob - strange - subculture - subversive - supernatural - surreal - taboo - taste - transgressive - travesty - ugly - uncanny - unconventional - underground - unusual - weird - wild
See also
