Leitmotif Image

A leitmotif image is an image that recurs throughout a work (or a cycle, or an author's entire oeuvre), acquiring a symbolic generalizing meaning and binding the artistic whole. The leitmotif image is akin to the concept of the leitmotif (from music) — a recurring motif that accompanies a certain theme, personage, or idea. Passing through the text, such an image gradually accrues meaning, gathers associations, and becomes a key to understanding the author's design. Leitmotif images include the garden, the road, the home, and the cherry orchard in literature; the image of the steppe in the Ukrainian tradition. Thus the leitmotif image of the kalyna symbolizes Ukraine, a maiden's beauty, and the memory of the lineage; the image of the word-as-weapon runs through the entire work of Taras Shevchenko and Lesia Ukrainka. The leitmotif image of the Dnipro unites the space of the 'Kobzar.'