We explain what an allegory is and its function. Also, as used in literature, philosophy, painting and various examples.
What is an allegory?
The terms allegory or allegorical are usually widely used in the world of arts and thought, but depending on their specific context they can designate different things.
These possible meanings, however, are linked to the etymological meaning of the word, coming from the Greek word allegorycomposed of allos (“other”) and agora (“speech” or “assembly”). That is to say, in principle an allegory It consists of explaining or expressing an idea, through terms that are foreign to it but that serve to illustrate it
This definition is sustained throughout the three main uses of the word allegory: literary, philosophical and referring to the art of painting, and as we will see later, in each case it is understood in a slightly different way. In any case, allegories serve to make certain ideas more understandable, through a set of metaphors that borrow real or fictional elements; that is, using the figurative sense.
See also: Figurative language
literary allegory
As far as literature and rhetoric are concerned, an allegory It is a stylistic procedure that depends directly on the use of metaphors. Through a concatenated series of them, the aim is to illustrate a meaning or an idea, ideally to transmit meanings that are difficult to conceptualize in any other way.
Allegory is common in different literary periods, for illustrative or sometimes pedagogical purposes. The Spanish playwright Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681) used it masterfully in his autos sacramentales, plays with religious themes, and came to define it poetically in the following way (in The true god Panfrom 1670):
The allegory is no more
than a mirror that moves
what is with what is not,
and there is all its elegance
in which it comes out similar
both the copy in the table,
that he who is looking at a
think you're looking at both of them.
In a literary work a character can be expressed through allegories, or the character itself can be a narrative allegory that is, it represents and embodies a set of ideas, and its destiny is a way for the author to give his opinion about them.
For example, in the Divine Comedy From the Italian writer Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), certain animals are often interpreted as allegories of capital sins: the wolf would embody lust, while the lion would embody pride.
Allegory in philosophy
A similar sense, although without attending to the linguistic aspect, of allegory, is what It is used in different philosophy or theology texts to illustrate complex ideas that one seeks to convey, especially when it comes to difficult, abstract or very technical concepts, which would require a long explanation, and can instead be summarized in an allegory.
Anyone who has read the biblical New Testament will have noticed, for example, that Jesus of Nazareth, in his explanations and speeches to his followers, used allegory very often.
Thus, when he said that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven,” he was not literally referring to the possibility (or impossibility) of a camel passing through the eye of a needle, but rather borrowed that image to describe how difficult it would be for the rich to enter paradise.
Another who often used allegory was the Greek philosopher Plato (c. 427-447 BC), whose allegory of the cave, for example, is very famous. It is an imagined narrative that contains its theory about reality and knowledge, thus making it more understandable.
allegory in painting
Finally, in the case of the pictorial arts, allegory is understood as the procedure of include an abstract idea in a work, in the form of an object that embodies it inside the box. In other words, it consists of representing some concept figuratively within a painting, either through an apparently innocent object, or through the entire painting.
For example, the painting allegory of faithby the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), shows a woman during a religious outburst, surrounded by elements that show an allegorical sense regarding the Catholic faith: a chalice, an open Bible, a crucifix, the apple of original sin, inter alia. The entire painting, thus, consists of Vermeer's pictorial way of explaining the Catholic faith.
Another possible example is the paintings of the Flemish painter Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450-1516), especially The garden of delights (c. 1500), a triptych painted in oils depicting the Garden of Eden, the false paradise of humanity, and finally hell. The painting abounds in representations of symbolic content and, therefore, allegories about human perdition, sin and divine punishment.
Continue with: Literary figures
References
- “Allegory” on Wikipedia.
- “Allegory” in the language dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy.
- “What is an allegory?” (video) in Mythological Observatory.
- “Allegory” in Glossary of Philosophy.
- “Allegory (art and literature)” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
