Description
Book SynopsisThis book traces the development of allegory in the European and American tradition from antiquity to the modern era. The essays explore allegory as a literary practice in poetry and fiction, as a technique of interpreting sacred and philosophical texts, and as an important element of modern literary theory.
Trade Review'This collection of essays has two uncommon virtues. First is the nature of the project itself … unprecedented in its chronological and thematic sweep. Secondly, the editors have managed to make a collection that reads as a whole. One can spend time with the essays in this book, ruminating and reflecting on the powerful role that allegory has played in the history of western literature, art, and thought.' Marc Mastrangelo, Bryn Mawr Classical Review
'This is indeed a strong and well-edited collection, with individual essays that are useful to the teacher, as well as a larger narrative that, by tracing the development of the different, interrelated meanings of allegory, clarifies a complex and ever evolving literary-intellectual tradition.' Journal of English and Germanic Philology
Table of ContentsIntroduction Rita Copeland and Peter T. Struck; Part I. Ancient Foundations: 1. Early Greek allegory Dirk Obbink; 2. Hellenistic allegory and early imperial rhetoric Glenn W. Most; 3. Origen as theorist of allegory: Alexandrian contexts Daniel Boyarin; Part II. Philosophy, Theology, and Poetry 200 to 1200: 4. Allegory and ascent in Neoplatonism Peter T. Struck; 5. Allegory in Christian late antiquity Denys Turner; 6. Allegory in Islamic literatures Peter Heath; 7. Twelfth-century allegory: philosophy and imagination Jon Whitman; Part III. Literary Allegory: Philosophy and Figuration: 8. Allegory in the Roman de la Rose Kevin Brownlee; 9. Dante and allegory Albert R. Ascoli; 10. Medieval secular allegory: French and English Stephanie Gibbs Kamath and Rita Copeland; 11. Medieval religious allegory: French and English Nicolette Zeeman; 12. Renaissance allegory from Petrarch to Spenser Michael Murrin; 13. Protestant allegory Brian Cummings; 14. Allegorical drama Blair Hoxby; Part IV. The Fall and Rise of Allegory: 15. Romanticism's errant allegory Theresa M. Kelley; 16. American allegory Deborah L. Madsen; 17. Walter Benjamin's concept of allegory Howard Cagill; 18. Hermeneutics, deconstruction, allegory Steven Mailloux; 19. Allegory happens: allegory and the arts post-1960 Lynette Hunter.
