What are LITERARY TOPICS [with more than 20 EXAMPLES]

The literary topics They are a series of set phrases that are used in literature and that link different semantic relationships to indicate an idea. It is a type of expression that has been repeated throughout the history of literature although it can have different variations depending on the author or the context in which they are used.

In this lesson from a TEACHER we want to discover you what are literary topics and examples one of the most popular so that you better understand what type of resource we find in Western literature. Take note!

We begin this lesson with the definition of literary topics, so that you can better understand what this resource used in the field of literature consists of.

Literary topics are ideas or concepts that appear recurrently in different literary texts and that, therefore, become topics, resources used regularly for artistic creation. You should know that, in the case of Western culture, these topics usually come from the Bible or the Greco-Latin tradition.

Because they are important? Recognizing literary topics will help you when it comes to analyze a text and make a comment correctly and appropriately.

Characteristics of literary topics

• Repetitions of universal ideas that appear in the history of literature
• They talk about great human themes like life, death, love, etc.
• Can have variations depending on the time or the author who uses it
• Literary topics are used by writers in a conscious way and as a resource to talk about major issues that have concerned human beings
• Many of the literary topics have their origin in Antiquity and they have remained in force to this day

As we have already seen, literary topics are different ideas that are discussed in literature. A specific author is the one who usually applies the classic topic and gives it a new or more current air, so that it is more adapted to his time or society. The writer who has created the most literary topics is Virgilio and it is in their Eclogues in the work in which we find them the most.

From this text by Virgilio we can find the different types of literary topics that exist. According to experts on the subject, there are 3 large groups:

• Topics about love
• About death
• About life

But... What are the most used literary topics? Here we are going to analyze some examples of those that are most popular in the history of literature so that you can finish better understanding this lesson.

1. Post Mortem Love. That is, the existence of love after death. An eternal love that surpasses the limitations of human mortality.
2. Bonus love. Good love, love treated as a kind and spiritual feeling that elevates the human being in a mystical way.
3. Love Ferus. It is the wildest love, the feeling seen from a more instinctive, more visceral, passionate point of view. Love treated as an uncontrolled drive.
4. Mixtus love. It is another of the examples of literary topics that exist and that refers to the union of the two types of love mentioned above, the ferus and the bonus. Therefore, it is the treatment of love from a more complex and profound point of view.
5. Beatus ille. Literally, in Castilian it means "happy that one", but this literary topic refers to the idealization of rural life, as opposed to urban life. A hymn to the beauty of the simplest and most country life.
6. Carpe Diem. It is one of the best known and most used literary topics today. It refers to the need to enjoy each day as if it were the last, to live life to the fullest and take advantage of every moment.
7. Collige, Virgo, Roses. This topic in literature refers to the transience of youth and beauty, therefore, it is an invitation to fully enjoy youth and love, without qualms. The rose is the symbol of this beauty and we must take it before life robs us of our youth.
8. Contemptus mundi. It is a topic that the world despises. A pessimistic view of life and existence, since it is considered that living is crying and suffering.
9. Dum Vivimus, Vivamus. It is a concept similar to Carpe Diem and that refers to the fact that while we live, we live. That is, that we enjoy each day of our life regardless of tomorrow.
10. Fugit irreparabile tempus. This phrase means "Time passes irretrievably" and, therefore, this literary topic makes reference to the transience of life, to the fact that time is something that cannot be recovered and that compassion.
11. Furor amoris. It is a topic that refers to love passion seen from a negative point of view, as if love were a feeling that sickens the lover and annuls his reason.
12. Ignis amoris. It is also a love topic that launches a metaphor about how love can be compared as an inner fire, hot, burning, passionate and that it can also destroy everything.
13. Locus amoenus. This literary topic is another of the best known in the history of Western literature. It refers to a bucolic landscape located in natural spaces and where the shepherds who live here have a deep loving feeling. A kind of lost paradise in which everything seems to be going well.
14. Memento Mori. An example of a literary topic well known to all. It means "Remember that you have to die" and the theme refers to the presence of death in our life, an inevitable destiny that we have to take into account so that we do not waste our existence.
15. Omnia Mors Aequat. It means "Death makes us all equal" and it is also a topic about mortality, but in this case it refers to the egalitarian nature of this inevitable process of life. Death does not discriminate or socially differentiate anyone. It is fair and equal.
16. Peregrinatio Vitae. Or, what is the same, "The trip of the life". A topic that talks about human life as if it were a journey that begins and ends. We must travel that path to advance and discover new landscapes.
17. Ruit Hora. It is a topic that refers to the fact that time continues its march, time runs and is ephemeral, therefore, our life is too.
18. Somnium, imago mortis. This topic equates dreaming with dying. Because when we are sleeping, our body looks like it is dead.
19. Theatrum mundi. It is about equating life with a theater, the actors would be the people and we play different roles in a drama that is already written by an almighty God.
20. Vanitas Vanitatis. This topic focuses on talking about false appearances and denounces the ambition that people can have.
21. Vita-Militia. That is to say, "life as a struggle" and it is a topic that relates living with a constant struggle to endure the different problems that we may encounter in our day to day life.
22. Vita-flumen. In this case, life is equated with a river, a place that flows, that advances and that does not stop until, in the end, it reaches the end, the sea, death.