Theme vs. Thesis

As I’m rereading the chapters in Literary Nonfiction, I’m wondering about theme and thesis. I look up the definitions that you see below.

theme
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(th m)
n.
1. A topic of discourse or discussion. See Synonyms at subject.
2. A subject of artistic representation.
3. An implicit or recurrent idea; a motif: a theme of powerlessness that runs through the diary; a party with a tropical island theme.
4. A short composition assigned to a student as a writing exercise.
5. Music The principal melodic phrase in a composition, especially a melody forming the basis of a set of variations.
6. Linguistics A stem.
7. Linguistics See topic.

the·sis
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(th s s)
n. pl. the·ses (-s z)
1. A proposition that is maintained by argument.
2. A dissertation advancing an original point of view as a result of research, especially as a requirement for an academic degree.
3. A hypothetical proposition, especially one put forth without proof.
4. The first stage of the Hegelian dialectic process.
5.
a. The long or accented part of a metrical foot, especially in quantitative verse.
b. The unaccented or short part of a metrical foot, especially in accentual verse.
6. Music The accented section of a measure.

As I read Minot’s interpretation of theme in various chapters, I wonder if a theme is more than we see represented in the above description. I don’t see anything about argument in this definition, but we know that a theme can be riddled with convincing arguments. I prefer, in most cases, when arguments are presented in a thematic essay. I find number four rather interesting. So, thematic essays are just a writing exercise that we assign to students? We see that the thesis description is much more than a writing exercise. The theme seems to be “an artistic representation,” which automatically relegates it to the margins of academic writing.

I ponder what academia would have been like if we were not so consumed with the questions “What is your thesis?” or “Where is your thesis?” What if academia was not so concerned with the thesis? What if we weren’t so concerned in our writing to have that blatant “proposition that is maintained by argument”? Yeah, I know we have that implied thesis, but it’s still rather conventional for the reader to find one or two sentences that he/she can say “ding, ding, ding,” I found your thesis statement. What if our academic knowledge-making ways went the route of creating thematic essays as we see in Minot’s essay examples? Certainly, we can see how several disciplines could have gone this route without too much trouble. I find the 2nd definition of a thesis rather interesting—“dissertation advancing an original point of view.” Maybe, it would be more difficult to discover an original point of view if academic writing took the form of essays. Maybe, we wouldn’t be so consumed with finding the “original point of view.” Maybe, we would find a relatively unanswered question in another essay and decide to write an essay exploring the question or idea another posed but left to others to explore in more depth in a subsequent essay. Maybe, instead of the search and destroy mission prevalent in the “original point of view” scholarly writing, we would create a borrow and expand mission and thank the previous essayist for leading us on our merry way to explore something they posed in their essay. Yeah, some of this goes on, but not to a high degree. We know the essayist likes posing those unanswered questions—sometimes attempting to answer the questions—sometimes leaving another to attempt. Consuming ourselves with themes helps us and others take a look at a theme from multiple angles and is another form of a knowledge-making process that I see as a more collaborative form of writing and researching.