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Abstract
The concept of theme has been and still is the ground on which different opinions and approaches meet. This not surprinsing if we consider the complexity of the concept and the difficulty to approach it. That is the reason why each writer who delt with it started either from well-known definitions trying to enlarge them by adding new elements or devised new definitions which would almost deny the existing ones. Distinctions are importatnt to be observed between theme and motif, theme and subject, as more than once, in dealing with these concepts, misuses may occur.
Key words: theme, thematic material, psychoanalysis, work of art, motif, recurrence
Jean Paul Weber who based his approach on the psychoanalytic thematic criticism of the concept, founded his critical system on the data furnished by the modern psychoanalysis. His view on thematic criticism starts from the suggestions and the points of view offered Ch. Mauron's psychocriticism and Bachelard's phenomenology. He also retains Freud's statement concerning the fact that some trauma of childhood has important consequences in shaping an adult's personality. Yet, he enlarges this aspect and and thinks that one should also take into consideration the infantile life as a whole. Starting from this premises he considers that it is necessary to investigate both the sensorial-affective complexes and the sensual and social ones. This conception led him to the presentation of a specific theme in a work of art. That is why, in his opinion, each artist has a certain personal theme which he expresses unconsciously by means of a number of symbols. In his work "Genèse de l'oeuvre poétique" the French writer states: "We understand by the concept of theme an infantile event or situation (in its broadest meaning) which is susceptible to manifest itself unconsciously, in the work of art or in an aggregate of works of art (poetical, literary, pictorial) either symbolically or directly, being clear enough that by symbol we understand any analogical substitute of the symbolised"1.
The definition of the concept of theme appears clearer in his "Domaines thématiques". He specifies here again: "Nous entendons par thème, ici comme dans notre précédent ouvrage, la trace qu'un souvenir d'enfance a lassaiée dans la mémoire d'un écrivain (et en généralisant, dans celle d'un savant,...