leitmotiv
- n a melodic phrase that accompanies the reappearance of a person or situation (as in Wagner's operas)
- Women's fantasies have changed, Friday maintains, since her 1973 book, My Secret Garden, in which the leitmotiv was submission.
- But to find the leitmotiv," he adds, "one must look beyond its incidental stylistic, mythological, ritualistic and legendary associations, toward the majestic silvery peaks .
- With the Nixon trip as the leitmotiv, MacMillan, a University of Toronto historian, deftly weaves together biographies of all the principals (including their wives), contemporary .