Motifs in Non-Fiction Texts

[Srd2000]

Hello, can there be motifs in non-fictions texts such as biographies, autobiographies and memoirs (do memoirs count as non-fictional???).
My opinion is that non-fiction recounts are of things that actually happened. For example, if I was to write about how I had coffee for breakfast, can there be a motif or symbolism of the coffee? I understand that with fiction writing you have some artistic license, however when writing about real events, you don't get to chose what you had for breakfast.   Thanks

[zhen]

Memoirs count as non fiction, as it's retelling a person's life and real life events. My teacher says that there can be symbolism and metaphors in non fiction. The logic behind it is that sometimes the writer chooses specific moments in their life that could have symbolic meaning. For example, I think we've all had a couple of depressing days that coincide with bad weather. If I was a writer of a memoir and I was describing a depressing day and the weather was like any other day, chances are I wouldn't even bother to describe the weather. But, if a depressing day the coincides with bad weather, I would describe the weather, because it provides good symbolism. In non fiction, even though writers can't control what happens in their lives, they can control what they present to the reader and what parts of their lives they show. So they can hand pick moments of their life which have symbolic meaning.

[peterpiper]

Most definitely. I'm currently reading a memoir myself, and it has surrealistic elements which the author has very much intended to include. Just to add on to what's being said above: motifs, symbols and even metaphors are just devices for capturing a feeling or even combinations of feelings, which then take shape as an idea. Everything in writing is infused with feelings and are carefully selected for that reason. Otherwise, there wouldn't be anything special in the act of reading at all (unless you're in academia). But just going back to your example with the coffee, if you point out the mundane detail of coffee for your essay, it still has to contribute meaning to your analysis (I'm assuming this has to do with schoolwork). Perhaps, rather than looking at 'the coffee motif' as just another 'motif', think more of the idea surrounding it, ie. quotidian rituals, the author's growing weariness towards his work, criticism against modern society etc.

[gisele]

Hello, can there be motifs in non-fictions texts such as biographies, autobiographies and memoirs (do memoirs count as non-fictional???).
My opinion is that non-fiction recounts are of things that actually happened. For example, if I was to write about how I had coffee for breakfast, can there be a motif or symbolism of the coffee? I understand that with fiction writing you have some artistic license, however when writing about real events, you don't get to chose what you had for breakfast.   Thanks

Yes for sure, there can be motifs in non-fiction texts. A great example are memoirs. 'Stasiland' is also a non-fiction text, more specifically, a 'creative non-fiction' or 'literary journalism'. What this means is basically the author (Anna Funder) is retelling the story of a bunch of people who were affected by the east german regime, through a number of interviews and chats. So we see this as a non-fiction text recounting history. However, the author deliberately uses symbols, metaphors, motifs, other structural features to, in a way, 'embellish' the story she's telling. Instead of simply quoting what each interviewee says about their past, the author uses the motif of colour (compares colour at the start of the book to the end) to symbolise the Germans' gradual 'cleansing'. For example, at the start she - as a visitor in Berlin - notices that the entire city is disgustingly green (green chair, green floors, green air...). This could have actually been the case, or equivalently... this could have been a deliberate construct by the author in order to give physical form (and accentuate) the notion of sickness/corruption (green = colour of sickness).

The above example is quite similar to your coffee example. So if you think that it is relevant to what you're analysing, then you can definitely discuss the authorial intent of the coffee as a symbol or metaphor (whatever the context is).