Jeremy Tambling - Allegory (The New Critical Idiom)

ALLEGORY

Indispensable to an understanding of medieval and Renaissance texts and a topic of controversy for the Romantic poets, allegory remains a site for debate in the twenty-first century.

In this useful guide, Jeremy Tambling:

presents a concise history of allegory, providing numerous examples from medieval forms to the present day

considers the relationship between allegory and symbolism

analyses the use of allegory in modernist debate and deconstruction, looking at critics such as Walter Benjamin and Paul de Man

provides a full glossary of technical terms.

Allegory offers an accessible, clear introduction to the history and use of this complex literary device. It is the ideal tool for all those seeking a greater understanding of texts that make use of allegory and of the significance of allegorical thinking to literature.

Jeremy Tambling is Professor of Literature at the University of Manchester, and author of several books on literature and literary and cultural theory. His most recent books include RE:Verse: Turning towards Poetry (2007) and Going Astray: Dickens and London (2008).

SERIES EDITOR: JOHN DRAKAKIS, UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING

The New Critical Idiom is an invaluable series of introductory guides to todays critical terminology. Each book:

provides a handy, explanatory guide to the use (and abuse) of the term

offers an original and distinctive overview by a leading literary and cultural critic

relates the term to the larger field of cultural representation.

With a strong emphasis on clarity, lively debate and the widest possible breadth of examples, The New Critical Idiom is an indispensable approach to key topics in literary studies.

Also available in this series:

Adaptation and Appropriation by Julie Sanders

The Author by Andrew Bennett

Autobiography by Linda Anderson

Class by Gary Day

Colonialism/Postcolonialism Second edition by Ania Loomba

Comedy by Andrew Stott

Crime Fiction by John Scaggs

Culture/Metaculture by Francis Mulhern

Difference by Mark Currie

Discourse by Sara Mills

Drama / Theatre / Performance by Simon Shepherd and Mick Wallis

Dramatic Monologue by Glennis Byron

Ecocriticism by Greg Garrard

Elegy by David Kennedy

Genders by David Glover and Cora Kaplan

Genre by John Frow

Gothic by Fred Botting

Historicism by Paul Hamilton

Humanism by Tony Davies

Ideology by David Hawkes

Interdisciplinarity by Joe Moran

Intertextuality by Graham Allen

Irony by Claire Colebrook

Literature by Peter Widdowson

Lyric by Scott Brewster

Magic(al) Realism by Maggie Ann Bowers

Memory by Anne Whitehead

Metaphor by David Punter

Metre, Rhythm and Verse Form by Philip Hobsbaum

Mimesis by Matthew Potolsky

Modernism by Peter Childs

Myth by Laurence Coupe

Narrative by Paul Cobley

Parody by Simon Dentith

Pastoral by Terry Gifford

Performativity by James Loxley

The Postmodern by Simon Malpas

Realism by Pam Morris

Rhetoric by Jennifer Richards

Romance by Barbara Fuchs

Romanticism by Aidan Day

Science Fiction by Adam Roberts

Sexuality by Joseph Bristow

Stylistics by Richard Bradford

Subjectivity by Donald E. Hall

The Sublime by Philip Shaw

The Unconscious by Antony Easthope

ALLEGORY

Jeremy Tambling

LONDON AND NEW YORK

First published 2010 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009.

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2010 Jeremy Tambling

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Tambling, Jeremy.
Allegory / Jeremy Tambling. 1st ed.
p. cm. (The new critical idiom)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Allegory. I. Title.
PN56.A5T36 2009
895.6'1008dc22
2009005278

ISBN 0-203-46212-2 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN10:0-415-34005-5 (hbk)

ISBN10:0-415-34006-3 (pbk)

ISBN10:0-203-46212-2 (ebk)

ISBN13:978-0-415-34005-2 (hbk)

ISBN13:978-0-415-34006-9 (pbk)

ISBN13:978-0-203-46212-6 (ebk)

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The New Critical Idiom is a series of introductory books which seeks to extend the lexicon of literary terms, in order to address the radical changes which have taken place in the study of literature during the last decades of the twentieth century. The aim is to provide clear, well-illustrated accounts of the full range of terminology currently in use, and to evolve histories of its changing usage.

The current state of the discipline of literary studies is one where there is considerable debate concerning basic questions of terminology. This involves, among other things, the boundaries which distinguish the literary from the non-literary; the position of literature within the larger sphere of culture; the relationship between literatures of different cultures; and questions concerning the relation of literary to other cultural forms within the context of interdisciplinary studies.

It is clear that the field of literary criticism and theory is a dynamic and heterogeneous one. The present need is for individual volumes on terms which combine clarity of exposition with an adventurousness of perspective and a breadth of application. Each volume will contain as part of its apparatus some indication of the direction in which the definition of particular terms is likely to move, as well as expanding the disciplinary boundaries within which some of these terms have been traditionally contained. This will involve some re-situation of terms within the larger field of cultural representation, and will introduce examples from the area of film and the modern media in addition to examples from a variety of literary texts.