Davood Esparham; zeynab akbari
Volume 8, Issue 1 , September 2018, , Pages 37-55
Abstract
“Allegory” is one of the oldest concepts that have been taken into consideration in many literary studies from rhetoric up to hermeneutics. No attempt has been made to clarify ...
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“Allegory” is one of the oldest concepts that have been taken into consideration in many literary studies from rhetoric up to hermeneutics. No attempt has been made to clarify the semantic fields of this widely used concept in numerous studies have been, directly or indirectly, conducted; however, the recognition of the semantic fields of applied terminology is considered as the most basic needs in every knowledge. This study is to explore various examples of allegory in the field of literary studies in Persian, Arabic, and English languages and seeks to provide a clear definition of allegory in each domain. Therefore, referring to the first-hand resources in all mentioned languages, and looking comparatively at the definitions of allegory in the most important sources of Islamic rhetoric, it will be tried to examine this term in rhetoric and other fields of literary studies in West. Based on the opinions of rhetoric experts about allegory and the ways the poets and the writers used it, three main meanings can be recognized for this term: a) allegory as a rhetorical technique; b) allegory as a literary type; c) allegory as a form of reading and interpreting literary works.
