Thesis (Ph. D.)--Bryn Mawr. / Vita. "A list of books and articles used in preparation of this dissertation": p. 167-171.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Bryn Mawr. / Vita. "A list of books and articles used in preparation of this dissertation": p. 167-171.

Thesis (M. Div. with Concentration: Church History)--Emmanuel School of Religion, Johnson City, Tennessee, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-64).

Thesis (M. Div. with Concentration: Church History)--Emmanuel School of Religion, Johnson City, Tennessee, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-64).

Thesis (M. Div. with Concentration: Church History)--Emmanuel School of Religion, Johnson City, Tennessee, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-64).

The following thesis will focus on the close relation between allegory and interpretation. Because interpretation proceeds from, the viewpoint that the literary work is essentailly a statement about some aspect of experience, it attempts to reduce the literary work to an argumentative statement. This thesis will argue that interpretation is, therefore, a mode of allegorization. Following from the argument that interpretation is allegorization, this thesis will point to factors suggesting that the interpretive allegorical approach is antithetical to literary expression. Interpretation generally fails to recognize the distinction between philosophical discourse and literary expression, or between, the logic of discourse and the logic of narrative. Further, allegorization has a restrictive effect on literary expression, in that an interpretive framework limits the possibilities of the suggestive ramifications of the literary tale. The restrictive effect of allegorization can he related to sociological and cultural factors -- factors that often determine the direction of literary response. The Renaissances furnishes an example of allegorical criticism that interprets in order to see literary works in terms of the presiding cultural-philosophical system. Further, the example of the Renaissance suggests that we might look for a parallel in the conduct of modern criticism. Allegorization in moderm criticism can be seen in interpretations derived from Freudian, Marxist, or Christian Humanist viewpoints. This thesis will argue that such interpretive criticism begins from outside the literary work, for it sees the literary work in terms of the vocabulary of the critic's system. Examples of approaches to Moby Dick will be advanced as evidence of interpretation that results in allegorization. A further example of the way allegory guides the response of the reader can be seen in The Pilgrim’ s Progress. Chapters I and III will argue that we can distinguish between the tale and the allegory, and suggest that the presence of the allegorical guide can be traced to extra-literary motivations. Further, when we attempt to reconcile the tale and the allegory, we see more clearly the irrelevance of the allegorical framework. Satiric allegory, however, presents a unique problem in that allegory in satire is generally not obtrusive.. Chapter IV will point to factors, such as the satirist’ s viewpoint, that prohibit the allegory from becoming a restrictive framework, as is seem in satiric allegories such as Animal Farm and Brave New World. In opposition to the interpretive-allegorical approach this thesis will argue that the open response is more in keeping with the demands of the literary work. The freer and more contemplative attitude of the open response dispenses with the search for the hidden meanings of literary expression. Critics such as Kazin, Lawrence, Sontag, and Rahv point to the attitudes and practise of the anti-allegorical approach. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

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Scottish authors throughout the ages have linked their art to their nationality. When the contemporary writer A. L. Kennedy observes, 'I believe that fiction with a thread of Scottishness in its truth has helped me to know how to be myself as a Scot,' she pinpoints the value of literature for both her predecessors and peers. However, the idea of Scottish literature as an autonomous and coherent national literature is controversial. Questions concerning self-sufficiency, unity, and value continue to haunt the idea of a Scottish literary tradition. Many studies have attempted to address the stereotype of Scottish literature's fragmentation and its place as a sub-category within English literature; however, few critical works have considered specific literary forms as constituting a basis for the Scottish literary consciousness. 'A Thread of Scottishness' argues that Scottish literature uniquely sustains an allegorical framework traceable from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the present. Chapter one discusses allegory's history, definition and relationship with the reader. Chapters two, three, and four focus upon the specific theoretical strands of the Scottish allegorical form: nature, nationalism, and morality, respectively. Each of these three chapters begins with a discussion of works from the medieval period and follows the progression of the Scots' use of allegory through time. More modern works, including S. Ferrier's Marriage, R. L. Stevenson's The Master of Ballantrae, N. Shepherd's The Weatherhouse, are shown to reflect the narrative traditions of medieval and Renaissance texts, such as R. Henryson's Morall Fabillis and The Testament of Cresseid, King James I's The Kingis Quair, and Sir D. Lindsay's Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis. Thus, through a consideration of the use of allegory within specific Scottish texts, I posit continuity for Scottish literature as a whole.

This thesis examines four novels as case studies of the mode of allegory in post-colonial Australian literature Allegory is a mode of fiction in which a hidden narrative is concealed below a surface narrative. Furthermore, when the hidden narrative is revealed, the surface narrative and its discursive codes become transformed. Post-colonial critics have argued that one aspect of post-colonial literature is the use of allegory in a way that the hidden narrative interpolates the surface narrative. This process of allegorical interpolation is one of the ways post-colonial literature is able to transform colonial discourses. Through an analysis of the four novels, I argue that allegory is a significant aspect of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian writing in its depiction of the natural environment and the settler nation. Bringing together ecological theory with post-colonial theories of allegory, I coin the term 'ecological allegory' to describe a specific type of allegory in which nature as subject becomes revealed within the 'hidden' narrative of the text. Through this process of interpolation, the literary representation of the land is being transformed as the natural environment is depicted as a dialogical subject. In the explication of the four novels as ecological allegories, I provide new readings of two canonical Australian texts, Remembering Babylon and Tourmaline, as well as, readings of two lesser known Indigenous Australian texts, Earth and Steam Pigs. I argue that theories of ecology provide a means for understanding the texts' representation of nature as subject. The allegorical mode of the novels offers a literary form whereby the natural environment as subject may be able to be represented in discursive language. Furthermore, in these allegories, the polysemy in the written mode of Australian literature is able to express the oral Indigenous worldview of Country, the land as a living entity. The claim that these texts are constructed as allegories, rather than simply reading the texts allegorically (known as allegoresis), combined with the methodology of ecological theory, to create a new term - ecological allegory - is an original way of reading Australian literature. Furthermore, my term 'ecological allegory' is an innovation in literary theory and its understanding of literary representations of the natural environment.

During the period of military government in Argentina (1976 – 1983) a machinery of censorship was imposed. The state had a systematic plan of cultural repression and manipulation of public opinion. Even though there was not an official censorship office, the regime had an organised and sophisticated operating control over publication and public performance. However, the dissident writers and lyricists examined in this study developed strategies of resistance that depended largely on allegory and irony to convey subtle and oblique oppositional messages. By means of a detailed rhetorical analysis of a varied literary and popular corpus this study examines the functioning of allegory and irony under the constraints of censorship. The corpus includes the musical production of one of the most outstanding representatives of the rock nacional movement and four novels. The fictional narratives selected are divided into two symmetrical groups: in each group, one novel is written by a female writer and the other by a male author; one has reached a large readership and popularity while the other had a delayed reception but has won critical acclaim. / Far from repressing forms of expression, the regime’s censorship policies fueled creativity in authors and composers. Irony and allegory were adapted to new necessities. While the former was used as a means to avoid political commitment, a use identified in this study as evasive irony, the latter schooled the reader in alternative ways of thought at the same time as it allowed multiple interpretations. This thesis shows that irony and allegory, as literary figures, can evolve and assume new functions, adapting themselves to the different political circumstances in which they are used.