The subject of this article's research is the philosophical motif in the fabric of literary works. Accordingly, the object of the study is a literary work as a text possessing cultural and artistic value. The philosophical motif is defined as a recurrent or overarching meta-theme of the work, connected with key philosophical categories of being, consciousness, truth, and freedom. Presenting the philosophical motif as a substantive universality of a highly artistic work, the authors highlight its main functions: the connection between the individual and the universal, the relativization of truth, and the transformation of a literary work into a philosophical practice. The structuring function of the philosophical motif is illustrated by examples from Anglo-American and French prose of the 20th century. Particular attention is paid to the major ways of realising the philosophical motif in a literary work – through the type of literary character and direct dialogue with directly philosophical texts (intertextuality). The methodology of the research is based on a theoretical analysis of literary studies approaches to defining the category of "philosophical motif." The work employs a comparative method to identify the functional features of philosophical motifs in various works, as well as a hermeneutic analysis that reveals their meaning-forming role in the artistic structure of texts. A significant contribution of the authors to the study of the topic is the definition of the philosophical motif in a literary work, as the analysis of literature on the stated issue indicates the absence of a terminologically clear definition of this phenomenon. The main conclusions of the conducted research are about the role of philosophical motifs in the fabric of artistic text: the transformation of a private plot into a metaphor of universal human experience through establishing a connection between the personal and the transpersonal, the initiation of the reader's own philosophical effort, and the identification of the literary work with a philosophical practice realized by the author through poetic means, which is embodied in a reflective act for the reader. The novelty of the research lies in the comprehensive analysis of philosophical motifs as a structural and meaningful element of artistic text. Unlike existing works that primarily consider the ideological content of individual works, this study systematizes various theoretical approaches to defining the nature of the philosophical motif and identifies its invariant functions manifested in works from different literary eras and movements.
Pogorelova et al. (Sun,) studied this question.