AP Language Class Notes
Objective(s): APELC students analyzed a writer’s rhetorical strategies (kind of).
Period 5, we began to talk over Sarah Vowell’s piece from the reader today, and then we began to talk over argument and theme. I offered that literary theme falls under the umbrella of rhetorical argument, that theme is the purpose of a literary text.
The definition of theme I provided runs counter to the prevailing concept that attach words like “lesson” or “moral” to theme and that allow for weak attempts at single word or phrasal themes. “Love”, “suffering”, “injustice”, et cetera, are not themes; they are merely discrete, decontextulaized ideas that are repeatedly, universally applied to literary texts and that result from little (level 2) analysis. They’re closer to (level 1) motifs, which may appear thematic and certainly inform theme, but, in fact, are not themes in themselves.
Further, themes are not clever phrases or droll morals: Man v. Nature, Appearance v. Reality, “To thine own self be true”, “Life is short, art is long”, et cetera, are not themes. These are level 1 and 3 cliches that, again, are born of little analysis. Theme, and its rhetorical parent, argument, are harder to pin down. Theme demands analysis and assertion that are worthy of evaluation.
Here’s a working definition of theme: “Theme is the motivating idea or ideas that drive a piece of literature, that is, the literature’s primary insight into life and the nature of man and his place in the universe, unique to the text under investigation but which does not explicitly reference it, and which is best expressed as an arguable and well-developed independent clause using highly connotative language”. Texts may have more than one theme.
We’ll work on it.
NOTE ABOUT REVISIONS: I’m very impressed by students’ self-assessment at the revision conferences I’ve particpated in these last two days. It’s nice to see progress in your thinking about your thinking. You should be pleased with your work thus far and be ready to continue to apply your burgeoning critical thinking abilities to the more difficult challenges to come.