Motif Theory

Motif is a literary term used in literary study, and motif study is also widely used in literary studyas an important way. However, the theoretical study of motif is not satisfying till now, and manyproblems on motif have not been reached in agreement in the academic field even only in a singlesubject. Take account of this, it is highly necessary to make theoretical illustration and study ofmotif.From the perspective of the definition of motif and based on the macroscopic review of thedefinition, the paper investigates the definition of motif in the field of thematology in comparativeliterature in contrast with the definition in other subjects by the means of tracing to its source. Theactiveness of motif makes it appear repeatedly in different nations' literature. As a meta-narrativeunit, it is easily distinguished, and it serves as structural function in different texts. Therefore,motif is of great significance in literary study. We may not only study motif itself, but also studythe spread and evolution of it, and study its function in literary narrative, which are all importantaspects of motif study.But because of the strong activeness of motif and the limited number of meta-narrative unitbeing repeatedly used in literary narrative, motif is borrowed into all nations' literature, which isin contrary to defamiliarization essentially requested by literature, so how to clear up thecontradiction between the borrow of motif and the principle of defamiliarization in literaturebecomes another concerned issue of the paper. Together with the definition of motif and itsfunction and content, the paper hopes to do some research, even it is immature, in the theoreticalstudy on motif.