Allegory The Theory of a Symbolic Mode / Angus Fletcher ; with a foreword by Harold Bloom and a new afterword by the author.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fletcher, Angus, 1930-2016.

Contributor:

Bloom, Harold, 1930- Author of introduction, etc.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (472 p.) : 23 halftones

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Anyone who has ever said one thing and meant another has spoken in the mode of allegory. The allegorical expression of ideas pervades literature, art, music, religion, politics, business, and advertising. But how does allegory really work and how should we understand it? For more than forty years, Angus Fletcher's classic book has provided an answer that is still unsurpassed for its comprehensiveness, brilliance, and eloquence. With a preface by Harold Bloom and a substantial new afterword by the author, this edition reintroduces this essential text to a new generation of students and scholars of literature and art.Allegory puts forward a basic theory of allegory as a symbolic mode, shows how it expresses fundamental emotional and cognitive drives, and relates it to a wide variety of aesthetic devices. Revealing the immense richness of the allegorical tradition, the book demonstrates how allegory works in literature and art, as well as everyday speech, sales pitches, and religious and political appeals.In his new afterword, Fletcher documents the rise of a disturbing new type of allegory--allegory without ideas.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

A Personal Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 The Daemonic Agent

2 The Cosmic Image

3 Symbolic Action: Progress and Battle

4 Allegorical Causation: Magic and Ritual Forms

5 Thematic Effects: Ambivalence, the Sublime, and the Picturesque

6 Psychoanalytic Analogues: Obsession and Compulsion

7 Value and Intention: The Limits of Allegory

Afterword

Afterword to the 2012 Editio

The Illustrations

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [441]-461) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781400842049

1400842042

OCLC:

1250073653