À la fin des années 70, lorsqu’on commence à s’interroger autour des changements historico-politiques qui intéressent les deux “moitiés” de l’Europe, la crise du bloc communiste et la fin des idéologies, la référence à la Modernité est inévitable : on discute la crise de la modernité, d’une modernité inaccomplie ou accomplie. Comment est-ce que le paradigme littéraire change en cette “période de mutation”? Comment s’exprime dans la littérature contemporaine la recherche du sens? On assiste, dans le panorama littéraire, au retour du sujet et du besoin anthropologique de la narration, à la fonction du narrateur comme témoin et médiateur d’histoires d’autrui. À travers la narration de récits de vie, des destins “fragmentés”, des biographies réinventées, on peut remarquer l’intention de ressusciter des “marginalia”, des traces oubliées par l’Histoire : on essaie de donner un sens à une vie ou de saisir une vie par le sens, de représenter la quête d’un centre métaphysique par le personnage qui revit le conflit et la dissociation entre “âme et forme”. Ce sont des récits de filiations, ils narrent des relations père-fils, de l’histoire de la faute et de l’origine du pouvoir, mais aussi des vies marginales, des traces de l’histoire et du rôle du narrateur en tant que témoin. Les auteurs ont recours au mythe : on s’interrogera alors sur le sens nouveau de la représentation du mythe dans ces récits en tant qu’interprétation allégorique du contemporain et d’une relation nouvelle au temps ; on questionnera son utilisation en tant qu’allégorie vide et énigmatique. / In the late 70s, when one begins to wonder about the historical and political changes regarding the two “halves” of Europe, the crisis of the communist bloc and the end of ideology, the reference to Modernity is inevitable: the crisis of modernity is discussed – a modernity accomplished or unaccomplished. How does the literary paradigm change in this “time of mutation”? How is it expressed the search for meaning in the contemporary literature? We are the witnesses, in the literary scene, of the subject’s return and of the anthropological need of narration (the function of the narrator as a mediator of others’ stories). Through the narration of life stories, “fragmented” destinies, reinvented biographies, we can see the intention of resurrecting the “marginalia”, the traces forgotten by history: we try to give meaning to a life or to grasp a life by meaning, we try to represent the quest for a metaphysical centre through the character reliving the conflict and the dissociation between “soul and forms”. The authors use the myth: we will ask the new meaning of the representation of myth in these stories as an allegorical interpretation of contemporary and a new relationship to time; we will question its use as empty and enigmatic allegory.

The late Middles Ages saw the development in Europe of increasingly complex, ambitious, and self-conscious forms of creative literature. In the works of poets such as Dante, Petrarch and Chaucer new models of authorship and poetic identity were being explored, new kinds of philosophical and aesthetic value attributed to literary discourse. But these creative developments also brought with them new dangers and tensions, a sense of guilt and uncertainty about the value of creative literature, especially in relation to the dominant religious values of late medieval culture. In this thesis I explore how these doubts and tensions find expression in Chaucer’s poetry, not only as a negative, constraining influence, but also as something which contributes to the shape and meaning of poetry itself. I argue that as Chaucer develops his own expansive, questioning poetics in The House of Fame and The Canterbury Tales, he problematises the principle of allegory on which the legitimacy of literary discourse was primarily based in medieval culture and the final fragments of The Canterbury Tales see Chaucer struggling, increasingly, to reconcile the boldness and independence of his poetic vision with the demands of his faith. This struggle, which emerges most strongly and polemically in the final fragments, I argue, runs in subtle and creative forms throughout the whole of Chaucer’s work. By seeing Chaucer in this light as a poet not of fixed, but of conflicted and vacillating intentions – a poet productively caught drawn between ‘game’ and ‘earnest’, radical ironies and Boethian truths – I attempt to account, in a holistic manner, for the major dichotomies that characterise both his work and its critical reception.

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Steinbeck's use of allegory in East of Eden has caused much critical resistance, but recent work in allegory theory offers ways of rereading the novel that help mediate much of this criticism. The approach to allegory forwarded here, which allows for multiple bodies of referents and fluidity between text and referents, empowers readers with greater autonomy and individual authorship. In the case of East of Eden such an approach moves the novel beyond a simple retelling of the Cain-Abel narrative to establish a flexible mythic framework for use in an ever-changing world. By challenging dualistic thinking, narrow vision, and cultural inheritance, this framework seeks to order the world in ways that allow for a greater range of humanity and agency. A consideration of early 1950s America demonstrates the relevance of such a framework in a given historical moment.

Scholars have not adequately explained the disparity between Arthur Golding's career as a fervent Protestant translator of continental reformers like John Calvin and Theodore Beza with his most famous translation, Ovid's Metamorphoses. His motivations for completing the translation included a nationalistic desire to enrich the English language and the rewards of the courtly system of patronage. Considering the Protestant opposition to pagan and wanton literature, it is apparent that Golding was forced to carefully contain the dangerous material of his translation. Golding avoids Protestant criticism of traditional allegorical readings of pagan poetry by adjusting his translation to show that Ovid was inspired by the Bible and meant his poem to be morally and theologically instructive in the Christian tradition. Examples of Golding's technic include his translation of the creation and the great deluge from Book One, and the story of Myrrha from Book Ten.

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Critics frequently, sometimes irresponsibly, label Spenser's poetry "emblematic" because of the appearance of either striking allegorical figures or moral assertions. This thesis establishes a standard for the application of the term "emblematic": first, by defining those elements which characterize emblems; second, by examining the emblem's cultural milieu; and third, by analyzing the "emblem patterns" that appear in The Faerie Queene. The study concludes that these "emblem patterns" transform the two essential elements of emblems to a literary treatment: the emblem engraving takes the form of a poetic description of allegorical figures or scenes; the didactic poem is condensed to an explicit moral statement. These "emblem patterns," then, can be regarded as reasonable criteria for labelling Spenser's poem "emblematic."