themesalienation

Themesalienation is a term used in literary criticism and media studies to describe a mode in which alienation is presented as a central or defining theme. Works characterized by themesalienation typically foreground estrangement of individuals from themselves, from other people, or from larger social structures, often through narrative voice, character psychology, or fragmented form.

The term draws on broader traditions of alienation in philosophy and literature, including Marxian notions of labor alienation and existential or phenomenological analyses of being out of sync with the world. In literature, modernist and postwar authors such as Kafka, Joyce, Camus, and Beckett are frequently cited for exploring alienation, while contemporary film and television often depict it through urban technologized settings, media saturation, and alienated protagonists.

Analytically, critics examine how voice, point of view, plot structure, and motifs such as isolation, disconnection, and incongruity express themesalienation. Common techniques include unreliable narration, fractured chronology, alien settings, and symbolic detachment, all of which can produce reader or viewer estrangement as a reaction to the work's world.

See also: alienation; estrangement; isolation; existentialism; modernism; postmodernism; narratology.