Allegory is a figurative mode of representation conveying meaning other than the literal. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation. Allegory is generally treated as a figure of rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of using language to communicate effectively. It involves three audience appeals: logos, pathos, and ethos, as well as the five canons of rhetoric: invention or discovery, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. Along with grammar and logic or dialectic, rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. From ancient, but an allegory does not have to be expressed in language Language is a term most commonly used to refer to so called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. By extension the term also refers to the type of human thought process which creates and uses language. Essential to both meanings is the systematic creation, maintenance and use of systems of: it may be addressed to the eye, and is often found in realistic painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects may be used. In art the term describes both the act and the result which is called a painting. Paintings may have for their support such surfaces as walls, paper,, sculpture Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials, typically stone such as marble, metal, glass, or wood, or plastic materials such as clay, textiles, polymers and softer metals. The term has been extended to works including sound, text and light or some other form of mimetic Mimesis is a critical and philosophical term that carries a wide range of meanings, which include: imitation, representation, mimicry, imitatio, nonsensuous similarity, the act of resembling, the act of expression, and the presentation of the self. Mimesis has been theorised by Plato, Aristotle, Philip Sidney, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sigmund, or representative art. Simply put, an allegory is a device that can be presented in literary form, such as a poem or novel, or in visual form, such as in painting or sculpture. As a literary device A literary technique, literary device, or literary motif is an identifiable rule of thumb, convention or structure that is employed in literature and storytelling, an allegory in its most general sense is an extended metaphor. As an artistic device, an allegory is a visual symbolic representation. An example of a simple visual allegory is the image of the grim reaper Death as a sentient entity is a concept that has existed in many societies since the beginning of history. In English, death is often given the name the "Grim Reaper" and from the 15th century onwards came to be shown as a skeletal figure carrying a large scythe and clothed in a black cloak with a hood. It is also given the name of the. Viewers understand that the image of the grim reaper is a symbolic representation of death. Nevertheless, images and fictions with several possible interpretations are not allegories in the true sense. Furthermore, not every fiction with general application is an allegory.

Contents

Etymology

First coined in English 1382, the word "allegory" comes from Latin Latin or sometimes Roman is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Although often considered a dead language, in view of the fact that it has no native, fluent speakers, Latin continues to be taught in schools and has been, and currently is, used in the process of new word production in modern languages from many "allegoria", the latinisation In literature, Latinisation is the practice of writing a name in a Latin style when writing in Latin so as to more closely emulate Latin authors, or to present a more impressive image. It is done by transforming a non-Latin name into Latin sounds , by translating a name with a specific meaning into Latin (e.g. Venator for Cacciatore), or choosing of the Greek Greek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical ancient Greek literature and the New Testament of "ἀλληγορία" (allegoria), "veiled language, figurative",[1] from "ἄλλος" (allos), "another, different"[2] + "ἀγορεύω" (agoreuo), "to harangue, to speak in the assembly"[3] and that from "ἀγορά" (agora), "assembly".[4]

Allegory

Northrop Frye Herman Norrie Northrop Frye, CC, FRSC was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century discussed what he termed a "continuum of allegory", ranging from what he termed the "naive allegory" of The Faerie Queene The Faerie Queene is an incomplete English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. The first half was published in 1590, and a second installment was published in 1596. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it was the first work written in Spenserian stanza and is one of the longest poems in the English language. It is an allegorical work, written in, to the more private allegories of modern paradox literature In literature, the paradox is an anomalous juxtaposition of incongruous ideas for the sake of striking exposition or unexpected insight. It functions as a method of literary composition - and analysis - which involves examining apparently contradictory statements and drawing conclusions either to reconcile them or to explain their presence. In this perspective, the characters in a "naive" allegory are not fully three-dimensional, for each aspect of their individual personalities and the events that befall them embodies some moral quality or other abstraction; the allegory has been selected first, and the details merely flesh it out.

Many ancient religions are based on an astrologic allegories, that is, allegories of the movement of the Sun and the Moon as seen from the Earth. Examples include the cult of Horus Horus is one of the oldest and most significant deities in the Ancient Egyptian religion, who was worshipped from at least the late Predynastic period through to Greco-Roman times. Different forms of Horus are recorded in history and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptologists. These various forms may possibly be different perceptions of/Isis Isis was a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshiped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic. She was the friend of slaves, sinners, artisans, the downtrodden, as well as listening to the prayers of the wealthy, maidens, aristocrats and.

The classical era

In classical literature two of the best-known allegories are the cave The Allegory of the Cave, also commonly known as Myth of the Cave, Metaphor of the Cave, The Cave Analogy, Plato's Cave or the Parable of the Cave, is an allegory used by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work The Republic to illustrate "our nature in its education and want of education". The allegory of the cave is written as a in Plato Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science. Plato was originally a's Republic A republic is a form of government in which at least a part of its people have some element of formal control over its government,, and in which the head of state is not a monarch The word "republic" is derived from the Latin phrase res publica, which can be translated as "a public affair" (Book VII) and the story of the stomach and its members in the speech of Menenius Agrippa (Livy Titus Livius , known as Livy in English, was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BCE through the reign of Augustus in Livy's own ii. 32). In Late Antiquity Martianus Capella Martianus Minneus Felix Capella was a pagan writer of Late Antiquity, one of the earliest developers of the system of the seven liberal arts that structured Early medieval education. According to Cassiodorus, Capella was a native of Madaura—which had been the native city of Apuleius—in the Roman province of Africa, and appears to have organized all the information a fifth-century upper-class male needed to know into an allegory of the wedding of Mercury and Philologia, with the seven liberal arts The term liberal arts denotes a curriculum that imparts general knowledge and develops the student’s rational thought and intellectual capabilities, unlike the professional, vocational, technical curricula emphasizing specialization. The contemporary liberal arts comprise studying literature, languages, philosophy, history, mathematics, and as guests; Capella's allegory was widely read through the Middle Ages.

Other early allegories are found in the Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible is a term referring to the books of the Jewish Bible (Tanakh) as originally written mostly in Biblical Hebrew, with some Biblical Aramaic. It is also called the Hebrew Scriptures. The term closely corresponds to contents of the Jewish Tanakh and the Protestant Old Testament (see also Judeo-Christian) and does not include the, for instance in the extended metaphor in Psalm 80 of the Vine Vitis is a genus of about 60 species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus is made up of species predominantly from the Northern hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, both for direct consumption of the fruit and for fermentation to produce wine. The study and cultivation of grapevines is, which is Israel[5] and Ezekiel According to religious texts, Ezekiel , "God will strengthen" (from חזק, khazaq, [kħaˈzaq], literally "to fasten upon", figuratively "strong", and אל, el, [ʔel], literally "strength", figuratively "Almighty"), was a priest in the Bible who prophesied for 22 years sometime in the 6th century 16 and 17.[6]

The medieval era

Main article: Allegory in the Middle Ages Allegory in the Middle Ages was a vital element in the synthesis of Biblical and Classical traditions into what would become recognizable as Medieval culture. People of the Middle Ages consciously drew from the cultural legacies of the ancient world in shaping their institutions and ideas, and so allegory in Medieval literature and Medieval art

Medieval thinking accepted allegory as having a reality underlying any rhetorical or fictional uses. The allegory was as true as the facts of surface appearances. Thus, the bull Unam Sanctam (1302) presents themes of the unity of Christendom Christendom, or the Christian world, has several meanings. In a cultural sense it refers to the worldwide community of Christians, adherents of Christianity. This community numbers in the billions of people of the world population, and is spread across many different nations and ethnic groups connected only by faith in Christ and observance of the with the pope as its head in which the allegorical details of the metaphors are adduced as actual facts on which is based a demonstration with the vocabulary of logic: "Therefore of this one and only Church there is one body and one head—not two heads as if it were a monster... If, then, the Greeks or others say that they were not committed to the care of Peter and his successors, they necessarily confess that they are not of the sheep of Christ" (complete text).

In the late fifteenth century, the enigmatic Hypnerotomachia, with its elaborate woodcut illustrations, shows the influence of themed pageants and masques The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in sixteenth and early seventeenth century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio . Masque involved music and dancing, singing and acting, within an elaborate stage design, in which the architectural framing and costumes might be on contemporary allegorical representation, as humanist dialectic Renaissance Humanism was a European intellectual movement that was a crucial component of the Renaissance, beginning in Florence in the later half of the 14th century. The humani Social or civic humanism rose out of the republican ideology of Florence at the beginning of the fifteenth century. It sought to create citizens capable of participating conveyed them.

The denial of medieval allegory as found in the eleventh-century works of Hugh of St Victor and Edward Topsell Topsell attended Christ's College, Cambridge, earned his B.A. and probably an M.A. as well, before beginning a career in the Church of England. He served as the first rector of East Hoathly, and subsequently became the perpetual curate of St. Botolph's in Aldersgate . He was the author of books on religious and moral themes, including The Reward's Historie of Foure-footed Beastes (London, 1607, 1653) and its replacement in the study of nature with methods of categorization and mathematics by such figures as naturalist John Ray John Ray was an English naturalist, sometimes referred to as the father of English natural history. Until 1670, he wrote his name as John Wray. From then on, he used 'Ray', after "having ascertained that such had been the practice of his family before him" and the astronomer Galileo Galileo Galilei was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations, and support for Copernicanism. Galileo has been called the "father of modern observational astronomy," is thought to mark the beginnings of early modern science.[7]

The modern era

Since meaningful stories are nearly always applicable to larger issues, allegories may be read into many stories, sometimes distorting their author's overt meaning. For instance, many people have suggested that The Lord of the Rings The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel written by philologist and Oxford University professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in stages between 1937 and 1949, much of it during World is an allegory for the World Wars A world war is a war affecting the majority of the world's most powerful and populous nations. World wars span several continents, and last for multiple years. The term has usually been applied to two conflicts of unprecedented scale that occurred during the 20th century: World War I , World War II (1939–1945), although in retrospect a number of, in spite of J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE , whose surname is pronounced /ˈtɒlkiːn/ (in General American also /ˈtoʊlkiːn/), was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion's emphatic statement in the introduction to the second edition, "It is neither allegorical nor topical....I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence."

Where some requirements of "realism", in its flexible meanings, are set aside, allegory can come more strongly to the surface, as in the work of Bertold Brecht or Franz Kafka Franz Kafka is one of the most influential novelists of the 20th century, whose works after his death came to be regarded as one of the major achievements of world literature. The term "Kafkaesque" has entered the English language on one hand, or on the other in science fiction and fantasy, where an element of universal application and allegorical overtones are common, as with Dune Dune is a science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert, published in 1965. It won the Hugo Award in 1966, and the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel. Dune is frequently cited as the world's best-selling science fiction novel.

Not every work of fiction is an allegory. Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include awards-winning plays such as All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and The Crucible's The Crucible The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play based on the actual events that, in 1692, led to the Salem Witch Trials, a series of hearings before local magistrates to prosecute over 150 people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693 is character-driven historical drama with contemporary relevance, but is not an allegory. Admittedly, however, this text can (and often is) read as an allegory for McCarthyism; linking the hunt for communists in the 1940's and '50s to the hunt for witches in the late 1600s. L. Frank Baum Lyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He wrote thirteen novel sequels, nine other fantasy novels, and a plethora of other works (55 novels in total (plus four "lost" novels), 82 short stories, over 200 poems, an unknown number of scripts, and many miscellaneous's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W.W. Denslow. It was originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900, and has since been reprinted countless times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of both the 1902 stage play and the extremely is plot-driven fantasy narrative in an extended fable with talking animals and broadly-sketched characters. It has been read as an allegory for the political problems of the time; however, it (as mentioned above with Tolkien's work) is possible that such allegory was read in after the fact.

List of allegorical works by genre

Art

Titian Recognized by his contemporaries as "The Sun Amidst Small Stars" , Titian was one of the most versatile of Italian painters, equally adept with portraits, landscape backgrounds, and mythological and religious subjects. His painting methods, particularly in the application and use of color, would exercise a profound influence not only on's Allegory of Age Governed by Prudence, with three human heads symbolising age and the triple-headed beast (dog, lion, wolf) standing for prudence. Jan Vermeer's work, The Allegory of Painting. The English School's Allegory of Queen Elizabeth with Father Time Father Time is usually depicted as an elderly bearded man, dressed in a robe, carrying a scythe and an hourglass or other timekeeping device . This image derives from many sources, including the Grim Reaper and Chronos, the Greek god of time at her right and Death looking over her left shoulder. Two cherubs are removing the weighty crown from her tired head.

Some elaborate and successful specimens of allegory are to be found in the following works, arranged in approximate chronological order:

Literature

Literature of the classical era

Literature of mediaeval era

Literature of modern era

Film

Television

Comics

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Allegories

References

  1. ^ ἀλληγορία, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
  2. ^ ἄλλος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
  3. ^ ἀγορεύω, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
  4. ^ ἀγορά, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
  5. ^ Kennedy, George A. (1999). Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and Secular Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times (Second ed.). UNC Press. p. 142. ISBN 0-8078-4769-0. http://books.google.com/books?id=LHHYx4idyPEC&pg=PA142. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
  6. ^ Jones, Alexander, ed (1968). The Jerusalem Bible (Reader's ed.). Doubleday & Company. pp. 1186, 1189. ISBN 0-385-01156-3.
  7. ^ Peter Harrison, The Bible, Protestantism, and the rise of natural science, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-59196-1, pages 1 to 10 ("Introduction")
  8. ^ Roppolo, Joseph Patrick. "Meaning and 'The Masque of the Red Death'", collected in Poe: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Robert Regan. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967. p. 134

Further reading

External links

Categories: Allegory | Rhetorical techniques | Literary devices | Greek loanwords

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How is High Noon an allegory to the McCarthy period?
Q. I watched the movie recently and I honestly only see it as a simple Western. I have also tried to research it online but I have found nothing. Sites only say that it is an allegory to a war.
Asked by Rae - Mon Oct 5 22:22:34 2009 - - 2 Answers - 0 Comments

A. Here's the reason the film is seen as an allegory for McCarthyism. It's because of events and circumstances in the life of the screen writer. [The Screen writer Carl Foreman, a former Communist who had started the script as an allegory about the United Nations. Then, while working on it in 1951, he was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee and ordered to name his former Communist associates. He refused to do so. He now came to see the script as a dramatization of current events]. You can read the full artcile here:
Answered by Skyman00 - Mon Oct 5 22:59:41 2009

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