Fabula and syuzhet
The term substance is a term of art studies in the field of analysis and interpretation of a work of art. In the literature material means a concentrated tradition, which was used in artistic and finds processing. The " substance " is therefore a Termini motif and theme of neighboring expression.
The fabric in the literary sense is a first outside of the gasket pre-conditioned substrate, a history of self- existence, then open to the poetic editing. Thus, a part of history, like Julius Caesar, a fairy tale, like Cinderella or even the poetic work itself, as are the Antigone of Sophocles to the fabric. However, since there is typically a lengthy process of tradition ( handing down ), the transitions between history and art can also be fluid, as in the fist fabric. For it is only through its handing down the narrative material is exempt from individual peculiarities and shaped to the other artistic editing open fabric.
The term " material " distinguishes itself as also on the more general term "theme". When material not only a higher degree of organization, the compression is available. The given topic in the fabric can also be generalized. The fabric abstracts the given theme and opens it this way of repeating artistic use. Not every topic can be so to the fabric. Just daily " themes " often deny themselves a Stoffwerdung, so that the English term theme or the French equivalent thème that in the Literaraturwissenschaft sometimes made precise with a " German Substance " is provided, both" can mean material " and " theme ".
It is disputed whether a substance can then be described as a "the plot structure constructing definite motive constellation " ( Andreas Meier, in: Killy 14, 406) or merely the motive constellation must be considered as a result of the process of Stoffwerdung. The question of whether material history here mainly as content research - and then primarily within the literature - was to operate ( Frenzel ) or in dialogue with the historical narrative studies of the comparative literature ( Beller ), still dominated the discussions in the relevant Sub- disciplines.
But literary agents also have a correlation to the substances in other genres of art.