The term "allegory" comes from a Greek word meaning "allegory." This concept is an expression of the abstract, abstract content of a thought (judgment, concept) with the help of a specific image. That's what allegory is. An example is the image of death as a skeleton with a scythe, as well as justice in the form of a woman whose eyes are blindfolded, with scales in one hand and a sword in the other.
In an allegory, therefore, a concrete image takes on an abstract meaning. It generalizes. The concept is contemplated through this image. This element of abstract content, which makes a specific image auxiliary in relation to the judgment or concept hiding behind it, constitutes an allegory’s characteristic feature. This meaning in itself is not an artistic element, and the fact that it is always present to one degree or another in an allegory, in the eyes of many, casts doubt on the latter’s belonging to an artistic device.
The dual nature of allegory
In fact, having a dual nature - logical association (connection of an image with a specific concept) and poetic correlation of the resulting concrete expression, allegory in its pure form should be classified as so-called applied poetry. But this does not mean, however, that an allegorical image in itself cannot be artistic. Everything depends on the degree of emphasis of its connection with the expressed object, on the degree of its independence. The more the allegorical meaning is emphasized, the more precise the correspondence between the expressed idea and the image, the more abstraction colors the image, detracting from its artistic value and independence. In such cases, the concrete expression is directed towards an idea, that is, the image has a certain tendency.
This is especially evident in various didactic poetic genres that use such a means as allegory. Examples: fable, parable. They are usually built entirely on this technique. This is also typical for other allegorical works, the basis of which is the intention to illustrate or explain something abstract in concrete terms.
Emotional coloring of abstract thoughts when using allegory
And vice versa, the more vivid the independence and concreteness of the image is, the more direct its action, the less consistent the logical correlation with the expressed idea, the more artistic the allegory is. In this case, the most abstract thought can receive an emotional coloring, acquire artistic perceptibility and the concrete visibility that an allegory receives. An example is the figurative allegory expressed in Tyutchev’s poem, in the last stanza (“Send, Lord, your joy”), developed over the remaining four stanzas. This is how Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin’s artistic translation of the abstract concepts of oblivion, inspiration and youth seems to be the “three keys”. It is also a means of allegory. We will give examples from fiction that are present in the works of other authors below.
Where can allegory be used?
This medium is very common in various fields of art. Allegory, examples of which we have given, as an allegory has the closest connection with metaphor, is often considered as a widespread, developed metaphor or as a whole series of images that are combined into a single closed whole. It is feasible not only in poetry, but also in various plastic arts. Such as sculpture or allegory in painting, examples of which are “Charity” by Charles Lebrun, “Allegory of Painting” by John Vermeer.
Allegory in literature
It is widespread for depicting artistic reality and is used traditionally both in book literature and in folklore. The Dictionary of Literary Terms defines this means as depicting an abstract concept through a concrete image.
Allegory, examples of which will be discussed below from fiction, is very often used in fables and fairy tales. In them, under the guise of animals, various human vices can be implied. Important political and historical events may be depicted allegorically.
In Russian literature, the masters of using this tool were I. A. Krylov and M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. Each in their own genre, they created magnificent examples of works (allegorical). The use of this technique by both authors is complex.
"The Wise Minnow"
There is always a philosophical, deeper meaning hidden under the outer layer; allegory has several meanings for these writers. An example is the fairy tale “The Wise Minnow,” written by Saltykov-Shchedrin, in which a type of so-called moderate liberal is depicted under the guise of a small fish. This is a cowardly person who is always afraid for his life. He is not interested in anything else except his life. The gudgeon cut himself off from the world, deprived himself of all joys, and brought no benefit to anyone. He did not want to fight for his rights, for his life, preferring to vegetate for a whole century. Therefore, the outcome of the existence of this liberal minion is logical. The author concludes that such people cannot be called citizens, since they are just useless minnows. They give no one cold, no warmth, no dishonor, no honor. They just waste space and eat food. It is clear that the author of the work implies, by portraying the wise minion, supporters of liberalism - a political trend. Generalizing the image more broadly, we can say that we also mean other passive citizens who look at the lawlessness committed by the authorities and remain silent, fearing for their own lives. But, in addition to this meaning, contemporary to Saltykov-Shchedrin, one can also find an eternal one in this fairy tale: in order to live a bright, full life and not regret empty years in old age, one should live, meet fate halfway, be open to it, win, take risks , and not be afraid of everything.
"Wolf and Lamb"
Krylov's fables are no less multi-layered. Beneath the moment-to-moment, relevant meaning, they hide deep universal ideas that the allegory expresses. An example is the fable “The Wolf and the Lamb,” which depicts the relationship between the people and the authorities, contemporary to the author, - this is the interaction between the subordinate and the omnipotent. At the same time, we also mean the relationship between the weak and the strong in any area of our life. Often, unfortunately, a dishonest person, having met a weaker person on his way, tries to prove his power and strength to him, mocking the innocent creature in every possible way.
"Bear in the Voivodeship"
Both Krylov and Saltykov-Shchedrin follow the traditions of the people in their works. Most often, therefore, they depict human vices, as well as social events, depicting them in the form of animals, the lives of various animals and birds. But we easily recognize hints and understand from individual details what the author wanted to say. For example, in another tale by Saltykov-Shchedrin called “The Bear in the Voivodeship,” the author, by a series of Toptygins, means city governors who were sent to restore order. In folklore, the Bear is the personification of ignorance, brute force, and stupidity. Saltykov-Shchedrin also adheres to a similar interpretation. Its mayors are shown as stupid barbarians who destroy everything in their path. Their main concern is to curry favor with their superiors in every possible way - the authorities. These people don't care about the fate of the people.
In the image of the Bear, Krylov also portrays various bosses. For example, in the fable called “The Bear with the Bees,” an embezzler who was admitted to government property is depicted. Mishka took all the honey into his den. The bear is presented here as an "old rogue", an unscrupulous thief.
Works depicting the helplessness of masters
Both of these authors also use another type of allegory. In their works, people quite often become heroes. Various human vices are exposed here through a specific situation. You can find more topical works in Saltykov-Shchedrin than in Krylov. This writer, as you know, actively fought against social vices, advocating the abolition of serfdom, ridiculing arrogant, arrogant gentlemen who could not take a step without “uneducated” and “dirty” men. Some of the most famous fairy tales created by the pen of Saltykov-Shchedrin are dedicated to this topic. These are "The Wild Landowner" and "The Tale of How One Man Fed Two Generals."
The helplessness of the presented landowners is revealed in these fairy-tale situations. They are unable to survive without using the labor of peasants. Without peasant supervision in everyday life, landowners are doomed to become savage. The centuries-old life in which serfdom existed completely deprived them of all skills. These gentlemen turn out to be capable only of “eating”, playing “pulka”, and scolding “homespun” men.
The two fairy tales presented show in allegorical form the state of affairs that was characteristic of Russia at the time of the author, when the issue of abolition of serfdom was at the forefront.
"Wolf in the kennel"
In Krylov we can also find many relevant fables. Almost all of his works were written as a response to a social event in the field of art or politics. For example, everyone knows that the fable “The Wolf in the Kennel” allegorically depicts the events of 1812, the Patriotic War, or rather, Napoleon’s attempt to begin peace negotiations with Russia. Bonaparte is meant as a wolf, and M.I. Kutuzov is depicted as a gray-haired hunter. Once in Russia (at the kennel), the Wolf himself turns out to be not happy about this. The kennel became hell for him. This hero decides to enter into negotiations, but the cunning one does not fall for cunning tricks.
"Demyanov's ear"
Let's look at another famous fable by this writer called "Demyan's Ear." This work ridiculed the meetings organized by “lovers of the Russian word.” Depicting an everyday scene in which Demyan, a hospitable host, treats his guest's fish soup so that he is then unable to get up from the table, Krylov meant by this the meetings of writers, in which the writers of the plays drove the listeners "to the point of white heat" with their various " creations." This sketch is an example of the use of such a device as allegory, examples of which we have already given from Krylov’s fables. The moral of the work says that if you do not know how to keep silent in time and do not feel sorry for your neighbor, you should know that the prose and poetry of such an author will be more sickening than Demyanova’s fish soup.
The use of folk allegory in works
The real virtuosos were I.A. Krylov and M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin in the use of such a technique as allegory. The examples from literature created by these authors that we have given, as well as their other works, are included in the treasury of cultural heritage. These writers, using the tradition of allegory in popular imagination, complicated and developed it in their works. Both authors created both relevant, topical works and philosophical, deep creations of universal humanity. It is not for nothing that these creators of fairy tales and fables remain favorite writers to this day for readers of all ages.
We examined such a concept as allegory. Only a few examples from the literature were presented in this article. In fact, there are many more of them. The 5 examples of allegory that we have highlighted in the headings are just some of the most striking works. It will be very interesting to get acquainted with other creations of Krylov and Saltykov-Shchedrin. Examples of allegory in the Russian language thanks to the work of these and other authors today are very numerous. This tool enriches our speech. Allegory is widely used today in oral speech. Try to compose examples of sentences depicting such concepts as love, death, glory, justice as living beings yourself.
Allegory is a literary device used by writers, with the help of which they try to explain to the reader their attitude to certain phenomena of life using examples that are understandable to everyone. Allegory is one of the most powerful means of influencing the reader’s imagination.
Allegory is an artistic technique based on allegory. It belongs to the group of metaphorical tropes when one phenomenon is depicted and characterized through another. An allegory is an expression containing a different, hidden meaning. “Tropes are figures of speech, expressions in which a word changes its literal meaning to a figurative one.”
In realistic literature, there are a number of historical genre forms that “oblige” authors to use allegories. The most famous genre belonging to this series is the fable. This series also includes: parable, myth, morality tale, fairy tale, and, in some cases, novel.
So, for example, the characters of ancient mythology are not just independent actors, but also bearers of a certain allegorical content assigned to each: Diana - purity, Cupid - love, Venus - beauty. In the history of literature, allegory has been registered in both “high” and “low” genres.
In 1700, a translation of Aesop's fables was first published in Amsterdam. In 1705, a book in Russian, “Symbols and Emblems,” was published in Amsterdam, which included 840 allegorical emblems and symbols that found a place in Western European culture. This enabled the Russian reader to master the world of conventional images characteristic of Baroque and Classicism, and, at the same time, gave him elementary ideas about ancient mythology.
In its broadest sense, allegory is more than an artistic device; This is one of the powerful, already traditional instruments of cognition and information transfer, in which the intellectual principle is inseparable from emotion and aesthetic play.
ALLEGORY - (Greek allegoria allegory) depiction of an abstract idea (concept) through an image. Allegory - Allegory ♦ Allegorie The expression of an idea through an image or oral story. Allegory - (Greek allegory) expression of an abstract object (concept, judgment) through a concrete (image).
We can say that an allegory is an allegorical depiction of a phenomenon of reality. This technique is widely used in painting, theatrical art, literature and other types of human activity. An allegory is always an allegory, that is, the object or concept under consideration is not directly named, but is depicted allegorically using other phenomena of reality.
What is an allegory? Examples from fiction
Almost all heraldic symbols are allegorical in nature. Allegory in fine art is a vast topic for a separate discussion. The use of allegory by word artists helps to reveal the abstract concepts of good, evil, meanness, greed, etc. in a specific artistic image. Allegory, unlike metaphor, covers the entire work, which is clearly visible in M. Gorky’s “Song of the Petrel.”
Allegory in literature
Allegory is used as a trope in poetry, parables, and morality. Allegory is the artistic isolation of concepts with the help of specific representations. The allegory oscillates between a concept derived from reflection and its cunningly invented individual shell and, as a result of this half-heartedness, remains cold. Allegory has a special use in animal epic. It is very natural that different arts have significantly different relationships to allegory.
See what “ALLEGORY” is in other dictionaries:
From the examples given, it seems obvious that the allegory is an allegory. The fact is that any trope is an allegory. For this reason, the Alexandrians and the Romans who followed them often mixed allegory with metaphor, metonymy, and personification. To this day, allegory is often confused with other types of tropes. This metaphor of Lermontov was never repeated by any of our poets. And vice versa, sometimes in pursuit of allegory they are satisfied with another trope.
But it helps to veil an idea that is seditious from the position of the authorities, giving it the character of universality. In fiction, allegory is the main trope of animal epics, fables and parables.
Compare, for example, the depth of the human experience of death and its image in the form of an old woman with a scythe. Or an allegory of love in the form of a heart pierced by an arrow. Such are the bearers of “speaking surnames”: Starodum, Pravdin, Milon, Prostakova, Molchalin, Skalozub. In addition to the creators of animal epics, fables and parables, satirists are not indifferent to allegory. When preparing for the Unified State Exam in Russian, try to collect as many examples of allegory as possible.
Antithesis is a stylistic figure that connects contrasting concepts (light - darkness, love - hate, God - devil). It lies at the basis of dialectics. Poetry, painting, sculpture are not just a collection of words and information. That is why there are so many means of artistic expression in the Russian language. One of them is allegory. An allegory, if you try to formulate a definition, can be called a specific device designed to call something abstract a concrete concept or subject.
In literature. Very often, poets disguise feelings and intangible concepts under animals, plants, objects, giving the poem a unique style and thereby giving free rein to the reader’s imagination. An example of an allegory in painting is the painting “Freedom Leading the People” by Eugene Delacroix, a French artist.
That is, it is like an artistic synonym. Allegory can be confused with metaphor, because both concepts mean the expression of something through something. Metaphor is a figurative meaning based on similarity; allegory uses associations more. A metaphor most often expresses an animated concept, and an allegory an abstract one.
Video: examples of allegories and metaphors in creativity
A vivid image of allegories is fables, in which each character is a personification. Poetry also uses this means of expressing thoughts. Allegories are not easy to understand. For example, in the Christian religion, in every parable, all characters, objects and actions are allegorical. The owner is God, talents are all that we are awarded from birth: abilities, opportunities and health.
Almost every parable is built on allegories in order to more easily convey the truth to people. Art serves to lead a person to perfection, otherwise it is not art, but simple catering. There are various means of expression for this.
In general, I read the article and realized that I understood absolutely nothing. Although, most likely, I simply have no desire to deal with all this. Most often, A. are found in the visual arts (for example, the fresco “The Fight of Foxes and Dogs” in Florence, depicting the struggle of the church with heretics).
Allegorical imagery underlies “The War with the Newts” by K. Capek, one of the first anti-fascist novels in foreign literature. A. retains its ideological and artistic significance in the literature of the 20th century. This is especially true for satirical genres. She is presented in a comical, reduced and belittled form (“victorious nose” is the embodiment of conceit and arrogance from scratch).
This book will be produced in accordance with your order using Print-on-Demand technology. What an allegory is can be understood using specific examples. The image of a bowl and a snake entwined around it is today perceived by everyone as an allegory of medicine and healing.
It arose on the basis of mythology, was reflected in folklore and was developed in the fine arts. The main way to depict an allegory is to generalize human concepts; representations are revealed in the images and behavior of animals, plants, mythological and fairy-tale characters, inanimate objects that acquire figurative meaning.
Obviously, allegory lacks the full plastic brightness and completeness of artistic creations, in which the concept and image completely coincide with each other and are produced inseparably by creative imagination, as if fused by nature. The allegory oscillates between a concept derived from reflection and its cunningly invented individual shell and, as a result of this half-heartedness, remains cold.
Allegory, corresponding to the rich imagery of the way of representing the Eastern peoples, occupies a prominent place in the art of the East. On the contrary, it is alien to the Greeks, given the wonderful ideality of their gods, understood and imagined in the form of living personalities. Allegory appears here only in Alexandrian times, when the natural formation of myths ceased and the influence of Eastern ideas became noticeable. Its dominance is more noticeable in Rome. But it dominated most of all the poetry and art of the Middle Ages from the end of the 13th century, at a time of ferment when the naive life of fantasy and the results of scholastic thinking mutually touch and, as far as possible, try to penetrate each other. So - with most troubadours, with Wolfram von Eschenbach, with Dante. "Feuerdank", a 16th-century Greek poem that describes the life of Emperor Maximilian, may serve as an example of allegorical-epic poetry.
Allegory has a special use in animal epic. It is very natural that different arts have significantly different relationships to allegory. It is most difficult for modern sculpture to avoid. Always doomed to depict a personality, it is often forced to give as allegorical isolation what Greek sculpture could give in the form of an individual and complete image of the life of a god.
For example, John Bunyan’s novel “The Pilgrim’s Progress to the Heavenly Land” and Vladimir Vysotsky’s song “Truth and Lies” are written in the form of an allegory.
see also
Notes
Links
Wikimedia Foundation.
2010.:Synonyms
See what “Allegory” is in other dictionaries: - (Greek allegory) expression of an abstract object (concept, judgment) through a concrete (image). So. arr. The difference between A. and related forms of figurative expression (tropes (see)) is the presence in it of specific symbolism, subject to ... ...
Literary encyclopedia - (from the Greek allegoria), in art the embodiment of a phenomenon, as well as a speculative idea in a visual image (for example, a figure with a dove in his hand is an allegory of Peace; a woman with a blindfold and scales in her hand is an allegory of Justice). By… …
Art encyclopedia - (Greek allegoria, from all egorein to say something else). Allegory, i.e. the transfer by similarity of a thought or a whole series of thoughts from its own meaning to an improper one, as well as the replacement of abstract concepts with concrete ideas.... ...
Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language- ALLEGORY (Greek αλληγορια, allegory) expression of the abstract, abstract content of a thought (concept, judgment) through a concrete (image), for example, the image of death in the form of a skeleton with a scythe, justice in the image of a woman with knotted hair... ... Dictionary of literary terms
See hint... Synonym dictionary
Allegory. The lack of clarity in the definition of the concept of “lexical meaning of a word” has a very difficult effect on the practice of dictionary work. Every explanatory dictionary misses hundreds, if not thousands of living meanings of words and invents many... ... History of words
- (Greek allegory), a conventional form of utterance, in which a visual image means something “other” than it itself is, its content remains external to it, and it is unambiguously assigned to it by cultural tradition. The concept of A. is close to... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia
Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language- Allegory ♦ Allegorie The expression of an idea through an image or oral story. Allegory is the opposite of abstraction; it is a kind of thought that has taken on flesh. From a philosophical point of view, an allegory cannot serve as proof of anything. AND … Sponville's Philosophical Dictionary
- (Greek allegoria), depiction of an abstract idea (concept) through an image. The meaning of an allegory, in contrast to a polysemantic symbol, is unambiguous and separated from the image; the connection between meaning and image is established by similarity (lion... ... Modern encyclopedia
- (Greek allegoria) depiction of an abstract idea (concept) through an image. The meaning of an allegory, in contrast to a polysemantic symbol, is unambiguous and separated from the image; the connection between meaning and image is established by similarity (lion strength, ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
- [ale], allegories, female. (Greek allegoria). 1. Allegory, visual, pictorial expression of abstract concepts through a concrete image (lit.). This poem is full of allegories. 2. only units. Allegorical meaning, allegorical meaning. In... ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
Books
- The Favorite of Fortune The Favorite of Fortune Tale-allegory, N. Medvedeva. The fairy tale-allegory “The Minion of Fate” was composed and translated into English by N. M. Medvedeva in order to draw attention to the amazing history of the emergence and development of a unique…
Allegory and metaphor. The other day I wrote a poem and thought seriously about them. What is allegory in literature? What about the metaphor? I suddenly realized that I could hardly remember the differences. Therefore, today is a repetition. Who's with me? 🙂 During the analysis, we also discovered such an important concept as paths. We’ll also wander through them and look at examples of tropes in literature.
I received the information from Wikipedia, Kvyatkovsky’s poetic dictionary and the encyclopedia of the poet of stichera. Then stated here in my own words in a very, very abbreviated form. For dummies :)
Paths. Not unknown paths, but different ones
Allegory and metaphor... It turns out that they are related! Because they are all paths.
Yes Yes! Exactly. And not only them. There are many more tropes. And about them a little later.
But first you need to understand their essence. Let's get started.
A trope is a word or expression used, so to speak, inappropriately to enhance imagery.
For example. You say “light breakfast.” And here it is! Here this very trope appears. Because you didn’t mean that you raise breakfast without difficulty. You meant something else! This is where the trope lies.
But allegory and metaphor, as well as puns, comparisons, epithet and much, much more, these are all types of these same tropes. Let's try to figure it out, at least with some of them. And let's start, perhaps, with an allegory.
Allegory. What is allegory in literature?
So. Allegory... This is the endowment of some abstract concept, well, for example, the soul, with a certain concrete image. Actually, it turns out that the allegory is rather visual. The image of death in the form of a skeleton or justice in the form of a woman with scales - this is what it is - an allegory in its visual execution.
But this point does not in the least prevent the presence of allegory in literature. After all, the image can be described in words in such a way that no questions arise with visualization.
The most striking and obvious example, in my opinion, of allegories in literature is Krylov’s fables.
Each animal there implies some human quality. The donkey is an allegorical image of stubbornness, the fox, as usual, of cunning, the lamb of meekness, and so on.
And now, having slightly understood the concept of allegory, I can say that in the verse allegorical images are presented as the main characters. And now, having with you the concept of allegory and examples of its definition, you can, as a training, find allegorical images in this poem :)
An example of allegory in prose... For example. Allegorical image of time...
Now let's move on to the metaphor.
Metaphor
Metaphor is something that comes across us at every step. Even at this very step :)
It is a figurative use of a name, property, or action, simply because the name, property, or action is very similar to what one would like to express. For example, “it’s raining,” “iron will,” “iron horse.”
But here are the metaphors from the poem: “foamy fog”, “wash the bones”, “through laughter”, “varnish with vodka”, etc.
There are also different types of metaphor, but we probably won’t go into that depth. I will only note that if a metaphorical expression is revealed over a large segment or throughout the entire verse, then it will be an extended metaphor. For example, according to this statement, a verse contains a detailed metaphor for autumn recipes throughout the entire verse, if we consider “autumn recipes” as a metaphorical expression.
Well, since this is the case, let’s try to briefly consider other types of paths in examples.
Metonymy
This is the replacement of one concept in an expression with another – similar in some respects. For example, “The glasses are foaming” instead of “Champagne is foaming” or “I read Pushkin” instead of “I read Pushkin’s poems.” I couldn’t find it in “Love” and “Autumn Recipes”. If anyone finds it, let me know.
Synecdoche
A type of metonymy. Using a particular instead of a whole or vice versa. “I need a roof” instead of “I need a place to live.”
Epithet
A figurative definition, a description of something. That is, when you, describing the property of this very thing, use a figurative meaning for the description.
Pun
It turns out that this is also a trope. A pun is when you use different meanings of the same word in the same phrase. A pun is possible, for example, when using homonyms. We have poems with homonyms, for example, (“I already have the right to know that right is on the right”)
Litotes
- understatement, softening - “life is only a moment.” And here -
Hyperbola
On the contrary—a deliberate exaggeration—“he eats like an elephant.”
Dysphemism
Everything is simple here - a rough designation of a non-rough concept. For example, instead of “face” - “muzzle”... Next - yourself :)
Euphemism
- vice versa. Replacing something neutral with something rough. For example, the use of “pancake”, “tree-winder”, etc. instead of swear words.
Comparison
This is when something is compared with something in order to enhance the imagery of the object of comparison. For example, “And he suddenly waved it away indifferently, Like a annoying fly in the heat.”
Periphrase
Indirect mention of something. That is, they seemed to mention it, but did not directly name it.
For example: “And with him - no sleep, no Murzik, no guest.” “No Murzik” - here we mean “no pet.” Or "night star". Is this clear?
Personification
This is when inanimate objects acquire the properties and characteristics of animate ones. " Well, you can handle it, surrounded by whistling
From the north, call your little sister...»
Irony
It's clear. This is when they say one thing, seem to be praising, but mean and do not hide it - the exact opposite, for example, “Well done!”
Sarcasm
- the highest degree of irony. This is already when with anger and hatred.
Well, it seems that we have looked at the main types and examples of tropes in literature.
I hope that it has become clearer to someone what allegory is in literature and how allegory and metaphor differ. I feel like it! Therefore - hurray, comrades (presumably, this was another type of trope - pathos 🙂)!
Thanks for reading!