1. Symbolism
1302 English Comp
April 22, 2010

2. Symbolism and Allegory
Expand meaning.
Literary devices developed from the connections that real-life people make between their own existence and particular objects, places, or occurrences, through either experience or reading.
Details = Symbols
Allegories = Stories or parts of stories

3. Symbolism Creates a direct meaningful equation between
A specific object, scene, character, or actions
Ideas, values, persons, or ways of life
Generally or universally recognized.

4. Contextual Symbols
Are not universal can be symbols only if they are made so within individual works.
Contextual, private, or authorial – derive their meaning from the context and circumstances of individual works

5. Allegory Transfers and broadens meaning OR
“to say something beyond what is commonly understood.”
Is more sustained than symbolism
An allegory is to a symbol as a motion picture is to a still picture.
Often concerned with morality and especially with religion
Also, political and social

6. Allegory
Because listeners learn and memorize stories and tales more easily than moral lessons
The allegory is a favorite method of teaching morality
Expression of views indirectly in the form of allegory rather than to name names
The double meanings of many allegories are based in literary form AND in the reality of circumstances

7. What is an Allegory?
Does the work have an extended, allegorical meaning.
Ancient Greece, the hero Jason
Anglo-Saxon England, the hero Beowulf
17th Century England, The Pilgrim’s Progress
As long as parallel connections are close and consistent
Allegorical interpretation is valid.

8. Fable, Parable, and Myth Related to symbolism and allegory
The ability to extend and expand meaning
The Fable
The Parable
The Myth

9. The Fable Short tale with a pointed moral.
An old, brief, and popular form.
Often about animals that possess human traits (personification).
Morals are attached

10. The Parable Short, simple story with a moral or religious thrust.
Associated with Jesus.

11. The Myth
A tale with Social, Political, Religious, or Philosophical Meanings.
A traditional story.
Central figures of mythical stories are
Heroes
Gods
Demigods
Most myths are fictional, some based on historical truths.

12. The Myth continued … Are not confined to the past
Myth can refer to abstractions and ideas that people hold today
Never-ending economic growth, etc.
Truths of mythology are not to be found literally in the myths themselves, but in their symbolic and allegorical interpretations.

13. Allusion in Symbolism and Allegory
Allude to other works from our cultural heritage
The Bible
Ancient history and literature
Works of British and American traditions
May require knowledge of history and current politics.
May require a dictionary or other reference work.