Narrative Motif and Literary Plot

In the article the system properties of a motif in the aspects of narrative poetics are analyzed. The definition of the motif as an aesthetically significant narrative unit, correlating in its semantic structure the predicative beginning of an action with actants and spatial-tem­poral indications, is formulated. The narrative unit is intertextual in its functioning, invar­iant as it belongs to the language of the narrative tradition of events in a specific narrative row, and variant in its eventful realizations. It is shown that the motif as an intertextual re­currence may be subjected to a correct analysis only in a sequence of its event implementa­tions in a particular narrative row. A number of works by a definite writer, of a definite genre or subject, of a definite line or epoch, of a definite kind of literature and a narrative tradition, as a whole, may be such row. An isolated analysis of the motif seems contrary to its intertex­tual nature and can’t be a reasonable ground for the exposure of the motif invariant proper.

Keywords: motif, literary narration, event, story, plot, motif analysis.

Narrative Motif and Literary Plot