The Oxford Handbook of Allegory

by Parry, David

• ISBN13: 9780192894359
• ISBN10: 0192894358
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2026-02-06
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Allegory has been variously defined as a literary genre, a mode of interpretation, and a symbolic dimension to all language. Although 'allegory' historically escapes easy definition, it can be broadly defined as a mode of communicating that says one thing and means another. Allegory arguably functions by means of a distinction between the surface level of communication and a further level or levels of significance beyond the surface.

The term 'allegory' has historically been used both of a mode of writing or representation and of a mode of reading and interpretation. Allegorical writing is found throughout history in a wide variety of literary forms and traditions. This Handbook reflects the diversity of literature in which allegory occurs, including genres such as medieval drama, Romantic poetry, and the postcolonial novel. It addresses both key texts typically thought of as allegories (such as Piers Plowman, The Pilgrim's Progress, and Animal Farm), and allegorical motifs and tendencies present in works not usually labelled as allegories, such as the novels of Dickens and the drama of Beckett. The Handbook also explores forms of allegorical representation beyond written texts, including visual art and film. In addition, the volume traces the history of allegorical reading and interpretation (often known as allegoresis), which has had immense cultural significance, especially in the case of sacred texts such as the Bible, but also, for instance, in the edifying readings of Greek myths and legends.

This Handbook tackles a topic that is by its nature global, transhistorical, and interdisciplinary, and its coverage reflects that breadth of appeal, starting with Plato's myth of the cave and finishing with the 2015 Disney/Pixar film Inside Out. It draws upon, and makes contributions to, fields including literary studies, film studies, art history, mathematics, classics, theology, and cognitive science. It features both traditional topics of discussion in relation to allegory (such as rhetoric, personification, and typology) and innovative new approaches (such as ecocritical and phenomenological readings), offering a kaleidoscope of perspectives to illuminate the ongoing resonance of allegory's 'other-speaking' to the present.

Author Biography

David Parry, Tutorial Fellow and Director of Studies in English Regent's Park College, University of Oxford

David Parry is Tutorial Fellow and Director of Studies in English at Regent's Park College, University of Oxford. His research interests cluster around the intersection of rhetoric, religion, and intellectual history in early modern English literature. His first book The Rhetoric of Conversion in English Puritan Writing from Perkins to Milton was published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2022. He has published in journals including SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 and Milton Quarterly, and in edited essay collections from publishers including Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Palgrave Macmillan. He is also the reviews editor for Bunyan Studies.

Table of Contents

Introduction, David Parry1. Plato as Allegorist and Anti-Allegorist, Peter T. Struck2. Allegorical Reading and Writing in the Epic Traditions of Classical Antiquity, Philip Hardie3. Allegory in Biblical Parable and Prophecy, Craig L. Blomberg4. Allegory and Typology in Early Christian Refigurations of the Hebrew Bible, Hauna Ondrey5. Dante: The Artifice of Allegory, Ronald L. Martinez6. Medieval Allegorical Poetry and Prose, Katharine Breen7. Allegory in Medieval and Early Tudor Drama, Elisabeth Dutton8. 'Allegory' and 'Literality' in Flux: From Medieval to Early Modern Interpretation, Jon Whitman9. Spenser and Allegory, Richard A. McCabe10. Shakespeare and Allegory, Judith H. Anderson11. Allegory, 'Allegory', and Allegory: Ends and Beginnings, c.1500-1700, Vladimir Brljak12. The Paradoxes of Puritan Allegory in John Milton and John Bunyan, David Parry13. Allegory in Continental Romanticism, Jane K. Brown14. Allegory in British Romanticism, Nicholas Halmi15. William Blake and 'Allegory addressd to the Intellectual powers': Swedenborgian correspondence, Romantic symbolism, and the metamorphoses of allegory, Peter Otto16. Victorian Allegory, Jo Carruthers17. Allegorical Typology, Typological Allegory in American Literature, Deborah L. Madsen18. High Modernism and the 'Allegory of Theologians': Joyce, Eliot, Stevens, and Woolf, Stephen Sicari19. Allegory Amongst the Inklings, Malcolm Guite20. Allegory and the Absurd in Post-1950 Drama, Mark Taylor-Batty and Juliette Taylor-Batty21. Allegory's Transformations in Postmodern Literature and Art, Maria Cichosz22. Allegory in Contemporary 'Christian Fiction', Kenneth Paradis23. Post-Colonial Allegory: The African and Caribbean Example, James Ogude24. Allegory and the Reader, David Rosen and Aaron Santesso25. Allegory and Rhetoric, Rita Copeland26. Allegory and Personification, Jason Crawford27. Allegory and Gender, Vera J. Camden and Valentino Zullo28. Allegory and Appearance: Phenomenological Approaches to Allegory, Brenda Machosky29. Allegory and Alienation: Marxist Approaches, David Hawkes30. Allegory and the City: Vanity and the Phantasmagoria, Jeremy Tambling31. Allegory and the Anthropocene: Ecocritical Perspectives, Gabriella Blasi32. Animals in Allegory, Onno Oerlemans33. Visual Allegory and Materiality in Early Modern Europe, Lisa Rosenthal34. Flatland: A Mathematical Allegory in Many Dimensions, Mark Kozek35 Allegory and the Embodied Mind: The Cognitive Science of Allegory, Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr.36. Political Allegory: Symbol and Surveillance, Craig A. Hamilton37. Animation and Fantasy Film in the Allegorical Tradition, Jason J. Gulya and Naya Tsentourou