The main way to depict an allegory is to generalize human concepts; representations are revealed in the images and behavior of animals, plants, mythological and fairy-tale characters, inanimate objects that acquire figurative meaning.
Obviously, allegory lacks the full plastic brightness and completeness of artistic creations, in which the concept and image completely coincide with each other and are produced inseparably by creative imagination, as if fused by nature. The allegory oscillates between a concept derived from reflection and its cunningly invented individual shell and, as a result of this half-heartedness, remains cold.
Allegory, corresponding to the rich imagery of the way of representing the Eastern peoples, occupies a prominent place in the art of the East. On the contrary, it is alien to the Greeks, given the wonderful ideality of their gods, understood and imagined in the form of living personalities. Allegory appears here only in Alexandrian times, when the natural formation of myths ceased and the influence of Eastern ideas became noticeable. Its dominance is more noticeable in Rome. But it dominated most of all the poetry and art of the Middle Ages from the end of the 13th century, at a time of ferment when the naive life of fantasy and the results of scholastic thinking mutually touch and, as far as possible, try to penetrate each other. So - with most troubadours, with Wolfram von Eschenbach, with Dante. "Feuerdank", a 16th-century Greek poem that describes the life of Emperor Maximilian, may serve as an example of allegorical-epic poetry.
Allegory has a special use in animal epic. It is very natural that different arts have significantly different relationships to allegory. It is most difficult for modern sculpture to avoid. Always doomed to depict the individual, it is often forced to give as allegorical isolation what Greek sculpture could give in the form of individual and full image life of god.
For example, John Bunyan’s novel “The Pilgrim’s Progress to the Heavenly Land” and Vladimir Vysotsky’s song “Truth and Lies” are written in the form of an allegory.
see also
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- // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional ones). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
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2010.:Synonyms
See what “Allegory” is in other dictionaries: - (Greek allegory) expression of an abstract object (concept, judgment) through a concrete (image). So. arr. The difference between A. and related forms of figurative expression (tropes (see)) is the presence in it of specific symbolism, subject to ... ...
Literary encyclopedia - (from the Greek allegoria), in art the embodiment of a phenomenon, as well as a speculative idea in a visual image (for example, a figure with a dove in his hand is an allegory of Peace; a woman with a blindfold and scales in her hand is an allegory of Justice). By… …
Art encyclopedia - (Greek allegoria, from all egorein to say something else). Allegory, i.e. the transfer by similarity of a thought or a whole series of thoughts from its own meaning to an improper one, as well as the replacement of abstract concepts with concrete ideas.... ...
Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language Allegory - ALLEGORY (Greek αλληγορια, allegory) expression of the abstract, abstract content of a thought (concept, judgment) through a concrete (image), for example, the image of death in the form of a skeleton with a scythe, justice in the image of a woman with knotted hair... ... Dictionary of literary terms
Sponville's Philosophical Dictionary - (Greek allegoria), depiction of an abstract idea (concept) through an image. The meaning of an allegory, in contrast to a polysemantic symbol, is unambiguous and separated from the image; the connection between meaning and image is established by similarity (lion... ...
Modern encyclopedia - (Greek allegoria) depiction of an abstract idea (concept) through an image. The meaning of an allegory, in contrast to a polysemantic symbol, is unambiguous and separated from the image; the connection between meaning and image is established by similarity (lion strength, ... ... Big
encyclopedic Dictionary - [ale], allegories, female. (Greek allegoria). 1. Allegory, visual, pictorial expression of abstract concepts through a concrete image (lit.). This poem is full of allegories. 2. only units. Allegorical meaning, allegorical meaning. In... ...
We often use words and expressions that in an allegorical form indicate any concepts or phenomena without naming them. For example, when we say “a crow in peacock feathers,” we mean a person trying to appear more important and significant than he really is. “The first sign” is the sign of the approach of something new, joyful, or change for the better. This technique of figurative speech in literature and art is allegory, examples of which are given above.
Origins of this definition
The allegory comes from the Greek words: allos - other and agoreuo - I say. Abstract concepts that cannot be conveyed briefly are depicted in the form of a vivid image, the name of which is allegory. Examples of such images that are understandable to all people, regardless of their nationality: the image of a woman holding scales in her hand is a well-known symbol of justice; a snake wrapped around a bowl is a symbol of medicine. Allegory came into art from folklore. Majority biblical images are also allegorical in nature. Examples of allegory in the Bible: Judas personifies lies and betrayal, and the Mother of God - moral purity and innocence.
Where can you find an allegory?
In fiction, allegorical images are most often used in fables and parables. The ancient Greek fabulist Aesop resorted to an allegorical form of expressing his thoughts, since he could not express them directly. Under the guise of animals, he ridiculed human stupidity, greed, and hypocrisy. Later, the allegorical manner of expressing thoughts began to be called. In Russian literature, allegory is widely used in the fables of I. A. Krylov. Examples of this are the images of animals that are characters in Krylov’s fables. They mean some specific human character trait. The pig is an allegory of ignorance, the fox is cunning, deceit, and flattery at the same time, the donkey is stupidity.
Comparisons in relationships
Sometimes an allegorical image expresses a certain attitude towards the concept that it depicts. For example, Ilf and Petrov use an image that personifies wealth and money. Emphasizing their ironic attitude towards this image, they turned the calf into a calf. And the well-known allegory has already acquired a slightly different meaning - an example of the senseless pursuit of wealth. This theme can easily be seen in many classical and modern literary plays.
Allegory. Examples in proper names
The technique of allegory is used by writers in the names of characters. Griboedov has Molchalin and Skalozub, Gogol has Sobakevich, Plyushkin, Lyapkin-Tyapkin, Fonvizin has Pravdin, Starodum, Prostakov. These “speaking” surnames are also an example of allegory. Fiction, like music, sculpture, painting, depicts life through artistic images that carry the feelings of the creator, understanding of a particular phenomenon through personal experience, worldview. To be more profound, to convey their experiences as accurately as possible, writers use all the richness and variety of language, including allegory.
Ushakov's Dictionary
Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
allegory[ale], allegories, wives (Greek allegory).
1. Allegory, visual, pictorial expression of abstract concepts through a concrete image ( lit.). This poem is full of allegories.
2. only units Allegorical meaning, allegorical meaning. Every fable contains some kind of allegory.
3. only pl. Vague, incomprehensible speech, absurdity ( simple). “I wrung out such allegories and equivocations that, it seems, a century would not have made any sense.” Gogol. Don’t give me allegories, but speak straight.
Pedagogical speech science. Dictionary-Directory
Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
(Greek allegoria - allegory) - a trope (see tropes), consisting in an allegorical depiction of an abstract concept or thought using a concrete lifestyle. For example, in fables and fairy tales, cunning is shown in the form of a fox, greed in the form of a wolf, cunning in the form of a snake, etc. A. is based on the convergence of phenomena according to the correlation of their essential aspects, qualities or functions and belongs to the group of metaphorical tropes. A. should not be confused with a symbol; the latter is more polysemantic and lacks the precision and certainty of an allegorical image.
A.'s strength lies in the fact that she is capable of personifying for many centuries the concepts of humanity about justice, good, evil, various moral qualities. The goddess Themis, whom Greek and Roman sculptors depicted blindfolded and wearing scales, has forever remained the embodiment of justice. Snake and cup - A. healing, medicine. The biblical saying: “Let us beat swords into ploughshares” is an allegorical call for peace, for the end of wars. Many A. owe their origin to ancient customs, cultural traditions (cf. coats of arms, emblems), folklore - mainly tales about animals, Greek and Roman mythology, the Bible, etc.
Most often, A. are found in the visual arts (for example, the fresco “The Fight of Foxes and Dogs” in Florence, depicting the struggle of the church with heretics). Verbal arithmetic is common in riddles (for example, A sieve hangs, not twisted with your hands (a web), proverbs (for example, Every sandpiper praises its swamp), fables (“The Oak and the Reed” by Lafontaine, “The Cobblestone and the Diamond” by I.A. Krylov), parables (almost all the parables with which Jesus Christ addresses his disciples are based on A., for example, the parable of the prodigal son, the parable of the talents, etc.), morality (edifying drama of Western European theater of the 14th-16th centuries. ). actors The morality play consisted of characters who personified various virtues and vices and entered into a struggle among themselves for the soul of a person (the play “The Prudent and the Foolish,” 1439, etc.). Individual allegorical figures have been preserved in the plays of M. Cervantes (“Numancia”) and W. Shakespeare (“ Winter's Tale"). A. is most characteristic of medieval art, Renaissance art, Baroque, and classicism.
In foreign realistic literature, many works have an allegorical, allegorical character. Thus, “Penguin Island” by A. France is a philosophical and allegorical novel in which the writer traces the main stages of the development of bourgeois civilization. The characters of the novel - penguins - are the personification of human unreason. Stupidity, hypocrisy, and religious prejudices are their constant companions. Allegorical imagery underlies “The War with the Newts” by K. Capek, one of the first anti-fascist novels in foreign literature.
In Russian classical literature, A. was a common technique in the satirical works of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, in the works of A.S. Griboyedova, N.V. Gogol (for example, allegorical names of such characters as Skalozub, Molchalin, Sobakevich).
A. is widespread in poetic language, where figurative meanings of words and phrases, often unusual and new, are used as an artistic device and give speech special expressiveness and various shades of meaning.
A distinction is made between general language and individual authorship.
General linguistic arithmetic is known not only in Russian, but also in other modern and ancient languages. Thus, deceit appears in the image of a snake, power - in the image of a lion, slowness - in the image of a turtle, etc. Any allegorical expression can be called A. For example, autumn has come can mean: old age has set in, the flowers have faded - the happy days are over, the train has left - there is no return to the past, etc. Such A. are also of a general linguistic nature, since their meaning is determined by the tradition of their use in speech.
Individual author's A.: for example, in the poetry of A.S. Pushkin A. is the basis figurative system poems “Arion”, “Anchar”, “Prophet”, “Nightingale and Rose”, etc. M.Yu. Lermontov’s allegorical meaning is contained in the poems “Pine”, “Three Palms”, etc.
M.V. Lomonosov, in his book “A Brief Guide to Eloquence” (1748), divided A. into “pure”, consisting only of words with a figurative meaning (for example, all riddles, proverbs like One in the field is not a warrior, The beast runs to the catcher, etc.) , and “mixed”, built on mixing words with a direct meaning and words with a figurative meaning (proverbs like Either a clump of hay, or a pitchfork in the side, Or in a stirrup with your foot, or in a stump with your head, Or your chest in crosses, or your head in the bushes and etc.).
M.V. Lomonosov warned: “Many people take excessive delight in allegorical style and use this trope too often, and especially those who do not know the true beauty of the word, but are seduced by its feigned appearance. Allegory used in moderation decorates and elevates the word, but without measure it is often introduced into the word and darkens and disfigures it. However, sometimes it serves to arouse fear, and in this case it is like night, for the hidden is more frightening than the obvious.”
L.E. Tumina
Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
(Greek allegoria - allegory). A trope consisting in an allegorical depiction of an abstract concept using a concrete, life-like image. For example, in fables and fairy tales, cunning is shown in the form of a fox, greed in the form of a wolf, deceit in the form of a snake, etc.
Culturology. Dictionary-reference book
Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
(Greek - allegory), a conventional form of utterance in which a visual image means something “other” than it itself; its content remains external to it, being unambiguously assigned to it by cultural tradition or the author’s will. The concept of A. is close to the concept of a symbol, however, unlike A., a symbol is characterized by greater polysemy and a more organic unity of image and content, while the meaning of A. exists in the form of a kind of rational formula independent of the image, which can be “embedded” in the image and then, in the act of deciphering, extract from it. For example, the blindfold on the eyes of a female figure and the scales in her hands are in the European tradition of A. justice; it is important that the carriers of meaning (“justice does not look at faces and gives everyone their due measure”) are precisely the attributes of the figure, and not its own integral appearance, which would be characteristic of a symbol. Therefore, they often talk about A. in relation to a chain of images united into a plot or into another “collapsible” unity that can be divided; for example, if travel is a frequent symbol of the spiritual “path,” then the journey of the hero of J. Bunyan’s religious and moralistic novel “The Pilgrim’s Progress” (“The Pilgrim’s Progress”, 1678-84, in Russian translation “The Pilgrim’s Progress”, 1878), which goes through the “fair of Vanity”, “the hill of Difficulty” and the “valley of Humiliation” to the “Heavenly City” - the indisputable A.A. in the forms of personification, parables and fables is characteristic of archaic verbal art as an expression of pre-philosophical “wisdom” in its everyday, priestly, oracular-prophetic and poetic variants. Although myth is different from A., on the periphery it systematically passes into it. Greek philosophy is born in a sharp rejection of the wisdom of myth and the wisdom of poets (cf. attacks against Homer, Hesiod and mythology as well). such from Xenophanes and Heraclitus to Plato); since, however, the mythological plots and poems of Homer occupied too important a place in all Greek life, and their prestige could only be shaken, but not destroyed, the only way out was an allegorical interpretation, the so-called. allegoresis, which brought to myth and poetry the meaning that a philosophically oriented interpreter needed. Already for Theagenes of Rhegium at the end of the 6th century. before i. e. Homer is the victim of a regrettable misunderstanding: the quarrels and battles of the gods he describes are frivolous if you take them literally, but everything falls into place if you decipher in them the teaching of Ionian natural philosophy about the struggle of the elements (Hera - A. air, Hephaestus - A. fire, Apollo - A. sun, etc., see Porph. Quest. Homer. I, 241). For Metrodorus of Lampsacus at the end of the 5th century. BC e. Homer's plots are an allegorical fixation of several meanings at once: in the natural philosophical plane, Achilles is the sun, Hector is the moon, Helen is the earth, Paris is the air, Agamemnon is the ether; in terms of the “microcosm” of the human body, Demeter is the liver, Dionysus is the spleen, Apollo is bile, etc. At the same time, Anaxagoras, using the same techniques, extracted from Homer’s poem the ethical doctrine “of virtue and justice” (Diog. L. II, 11); this line was continued by Antisthenes, the Cynics and Stoics, who interpreted the images of myth and epic as the philosophical ideal of victory over passions. The image of Hercules, who was chosen by Prodicus as the hero of the moralistic A. (the motif of “Hercules at the Crossroads” - the theme of the choice between Pleasure and Virtue), underwent a particularly energetic rethinking. The search for A. as the “true” meaning of the image could be served by a more or less arbitrary etymology aimed at clarifying the “true” meaning of the name; this procedure (partly parodying the running techniques of the sophists) is carried out in Plato’s “Cratylus” (for example, 407AB: since “Athena embodies the mind and thought itself,” her name is interpreted as “god-thought” or “moral-thought”). The taste for A. spreads everywhere; Although the Epicureans rejected in principle the allegorical interpretation of myths, this did not prevent Lucretius from explaining the torment of sinners in Hades as A. psychological states.
The same approach to traditional subjects and authoritative texts has been widely applied to the Bible since the time of Philo of Alexandria. Philo was followed by Christian thinkers - Origen, exegetes of the Alexandrian school, Gregory of Nyssa, Ambrose of Milan and many others. Only through A. could faith in Revelation and the skills of Platonic speculation be combined into a single system. A. played an important role in Christian exegesis: the doctrine of the Old and New Testaments as two hierarchically unequal stages of Revelation suggested t. typology - a look at Old Testament events as A. New Testament events, their allegorical anticipation (“transformation”). In the medieval West, a doctrine was formed according to which the biblical text has four meanings: literal or historical (for example, the exodus from Egypt), typological (indication of the redemption of people by Christ), moral (exhortation to leave all carnal things) and anagogical, i.e. mystical-eschatological (hinting at the arrival in the bliss of the future life). The Renaissance maintains the cult of A., connecting it with attempts to see behind the diversity of religions a single meaning, accessible only to initiates: among humanists, who very widely use names pagan gods and goddesses like A. Christ and the Virgin Mary, these and other traditional Christian images can in turn be interpreted as A., hinting at this meaning (Mutianus Rufus, Der Briefwechsel, Kassel, 1885, S. 28). Renaissance philosophers love to refer to the ancient mysteries (cf. Wind E., Pagan mysteries in the Renaissance, L, 1968) and strive, as Ficino says, “to cover the divine mysteries everywhere with a veil of allegory” (In Parm., prooem.). Baroque culture gives A. the specific character of an emblem (SchoneA., Emblematik und Drama im Zeitalter des Barock, Miinchen, 1964), emphasizing the mysteriousness of A., which was already important for the Renaissance. For the Enlightenment, the didactic clarity and interpretation of A., transformed into a genus, was more important visual aid (philosophical tales Voltaire, Lessing's fables, etc.) - in principle, as it was among the ancient Cynics and repeated in the 20th century. in the work and aesthetics of Brecht (allegorization of life as its exposure, demystification, reduction to the simplest processes).
The role of A. in the history of thought thus has two aspects. Firstly, the search for A. is the only possible conscious attitude of reflection in the face of the heritage of mythopoetic thinking and the epic (in Europe - Homeric) tradition up to the discovery of the intrinsic value and self-legitimacy of the archaic. This discovery is planned only in the 18th century. (Vico, iredromanticism) and was widely recognized in the 19th century. (romanticism, Hegelian historicism, etc.). Secondly, the history of culture knows at all times the outgoing and returning waves of gravity towards art, associated with the educational, didactic and revelatory attitude of thought in the face of reality.
Sergey Averintsev.
Sophia-Logos. Dictionary
Catholic Encyclopedia
Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
(Greekάλληγορία - allegory), in exegesis - a method of interpreting the texts of Holy Scripture that goes beyond their literal understanding.
The allegorical method of interpreting texts originated in Ancient Greece in the philosophy of the Presocratics, who denied a literal understanding of mythology, and reached its peak in the Stoic commentaries on the poems of Homer and Hesiod. Ignoring the source. context of these works, commentators saw in their heroes personifications of physical or mental phenomena, and their episodes were interpreted as allegorical presentations of later philosophies. concepts. In the writings of Philo of Alexandria, A. is widely used in the interpretation of the books of the Old Testament (the events of sacred history are reinterpreted as the vicissitudes of the life of the soul striving to know itself and God). According to Philo, A. was not the property of only pagan philosophy, but was also practiced in the rabbinical schools of Palestine. NT authors often interpret quotations from the OT allegorically. The word A. itself occurs in Gal 4:24, where Hagar and Sarah mean Israel and the Church.
The tradition of allegorical interpretation of the texts of the NT and OT was developed by representatives of the Alexandrian theological school (Clement of Alexandria, Origen, etc.). Origen mainly followed Philo's concept; he spoke about three meanings of Scripture: bodily, or literally-historical, spiritual, or moral-edifying, and spiritual, i.e. allegorical. Origen pointed to A. as the most adequate way of interpreting Scripture.
The attitude of representatives of various theologians. schools to the allegorical method was ambiguous. Thus, Irenaeus of Lyons associated A. with the heretical teachings of the Gnostics, who, in his opinion, resort to it because they do not understand the true meaning of Scripture or have the intention of distorting it. The validity of the allegorical understanding of the Bible. texts became the subject of a long controversy between the Alexandrian and Antiochene exegetical schools, which began in the 4th century. speech of Eustathius of Antioch against the extreme allegorism of Origen.
The history of exegesis knows many cases of interpreters combining the allegorical method with other methods of interpreting Scripture. Thus, in his commentary on the Song of Songs, Ambrose of Milan says that the image of the Bride symbolizes both the Church of Christ (in this case a typological connection is established) and humanity. soul with its desire for the Bridegroom-Christ (classical A.). In the works of Augustine, whose exegetical concept was formed under the influence of the sermons of Ambrose, A. is also used along with other exegetical techniques. Late Antique and Middle Ages. the authors (starting with Hilary of Pictavia, John Cassian, Rufinus of Aquileia) accepted Origen's classification of the 3 meanings of Scripture and identified the spirit within. meaning of 2 aspects - A. itself and anagogy (from Greekάναγωγή - ascent). This is how the concept of 4 levels of literal meaning of Scripture was formed, i.e. the direct meaning of the text (the basis for all other meanings); allegorical, when some events are considered as symbols of other events (for example, the images of the Old Testament refer to the life of Jesus Christ); moral, which concerns the life of every Christian; anagogical, which refers to eschatological or eternal realities (cf. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I a 1, 10; Dante, Symposium II, 1) This scheme is expressed in the famous couplet of Nicholas of Lyra (c. 1336): “Littera gesta docet, quid credas allegoria, moralis quid agas, quo tendas anagogia" (“The letter teaches facts; allegory teaches what to believe; morality teaches what to do; what to strive for, anagogy teaches”).
Protest. exegetical concept, main. the principle of which is to understand Scripture “from Scripture itself,” denies the allegorical method. The tradition of the Catholic Church allows for the fundamental possibility of an allegorical interpretation of Scripture even in the present day. time.
Liter: Bychkov V.V. Aesthetic Patrum. M., 1995, p. 35–52, 215–251; Nesterova O.E. Typological exegesis: Controversy over method // Alpha and Omega 4 (1998), 62–77; Writings of ancient Christian apologists / Ed. A.G. Dunaeva. SPb., 1999, p. 463–480; Grant R.M. The Letter and the Spirit. L., 1957; PОpin J. Mythe et allОgorie: Les origines grecques et les contestations judОo-chrОtiennes. P., 1958; Formen und Funktionen der Allegorie / Hrsg. W. Haug. Stuttgart, 1979.
Yu. Ivanova
Dictionary of linguistic terms
Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
(Old Greek άλληγορία).
allegory; expression of an abstract concept through an image. A. is used as a trope in fables, parables, and morality tales. In the last decade, she has become more active in the journalistic style, where she moved from oral public speech; The “popularity” of A. as a trope in modern journalism is due to the fact that A. represents such a “way of narration in which the literal meaning of the entire text serves to indicate the figurative one, the transmission of which is the true purpose of the narration” [Culture of Speech, 2001 , P.272].
Terminological dictionary-thesaurus on literary criticism
Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
(Greek allegoria - allegory) - the disclosure of an abstract idea (concept) through a concrete image of an object or phenomenon of reality. In contrast to the polysemantic meaning of a symbol, the meaning of an allegory is unambiguous and separated from the image; the connection between meaning and image is established by analogy or contiguity.
RB: language. Visual and expressive means
Genus: trails
Genre: fable, parable, fairy tale
Ass: symbol
Example: In fables and fairy tales, cunning is depicted in the form of a fox, greed in the form of a wolf, deceit in the form of a snake, etc.
* “Many allegories owe their origin to ancient customs, cultural traditions (cf. coats of arms, emblems), folklore - mainly fairy tales about animals (the fox is an allegory of cunning, the wolf - malice and greed, etc.)” (L.I. Lebedev).
“Each time a poetic image is perceived and enlivened by the understander, it tells him something different and greater than what is directly contained in it. Thus, poetry is always an allegory, an allegory in the broad sense of the word” (A.A. Potebnya ). *
Dictionary of forgotten and difficult words of the 18th-19th centuries
Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
, And , and.
Allegory, fiction.
* But I spent a long time hanging out in the tavern just now, making such allegories and jokes. // Gogol. Inspector //; How did I come up with such an allegory, and it wasn’t necessary at all!// Chernyshevsky. What to do // *
Gasparov. Records and extracts
Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
♦ S.A.: symbol and allegory are similar to a word and a phrase, an image and a plot: the first blooms with a whole set of dictionary meanings, the second is contextually unambiguous, like a shaft cut from this flowering trunk.
Philosophical Dictionary (Comte-Sponville)
Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
♦ Allegory
Expressing an idea through an image or oral narrative. Allegory is the opposite of abstraction; it is a kind of thought that has taken on flesh. From a philosophical point of view, an allegory cannot serve as proof of anything. And, with the exception of Plato, not a single philosopher has been able to use allegory without seeming ridiculous.
Design. Glossary of terms
Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
ALLEGORY (Greek allegoria - allegory)– depiction of an abstract idea (concept) through an image. The meaning of an allegory, in contrast to a polysemantic symbol, is unambiguous and separated from the image; the connection between meaning and image is established by similarity (lion - strength, power or royalty). As a trope, allegory is used in fables, parables, and morality tales; in the fine arts it is expressed by certain attributes (justice - a woman with scales). Most characteristic of medieval art, Renaissance, mannerism, baroque, classicism.
Aesthetics. encyclopedic Dictionary
Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
(Greek allegory- allegory)
a rhetorical figure of allegory, consisting in the verbal or pictorial use of a specific image for a more vivid, intelligible, impressive expression or explanation of an abstract idea, an abstract, speculative principle. Allegory allows you to discover and bring to the fore a hidden meaning or an idea that is not obvious due to its particular complexity through an indirect description. Masters of eloquence are able to create whole garlands of allegories when interpreting ancient epic, religious, philosophical and artistic texts. So, in ancient culture Allegorical interpretations of ancient myths and the poems of Homer and Hesiod were common.
In an allegory, the emotional, figurative, pictorial principle balances the rational, abstract and speculative principle. Directed towards each other, they mutually highlight certain meaningful facets in each other and reveal a certain new integrity, where the efforts of the senses and mind are combined into a single vector of aesthetic perception and the accompanying process of understanding. The allegorical principle has become entrenched in such genres as parable, fable, fantastic utopia, and dystopia.
The allegorical method is used in interpreting the Bible to rationally clarify its content. It is most often advisable in cases where the literal interpretation of a certain content-semantic fragment seems inappropriate for some reason. The advantage of allegorical interpretations is that they allow us to discern new, additional meaningful facets and implicit semantic shades in biblical ideas and images. Thanks to them, the literal meaning can not only expand and deepen, but also transform. But here a serious danger awaits interpreters: you can, unnoticed by yourself, cross the boundary that is permitted by the content of the text. And then a false interpretation may arise, which does not bring closer, but leads away from the understanding of the true biblical meanings.
The advantage of the allegorical method is that it allows us to move away from naive literalism in the interpretation of multifaceted biblical truths and images. This method was used in the interpretation of the Old and New Testaments by Philo of Alexandria, Clement of Alexandria, Origen and other theologians. Thus, Philo of Alexandria saw in the Old Testament history evidence of wanderings human soul trying to understand God, His plans and understand ourselves. Origen identified three ways of interpreting the Bible - literal, moralistic and spiritually allegorical. At the same time, he considered the latter method the most suitable to the peculiarities of Holy Scripture.
Irenaeus of Lyons looked at the allegorical method from a different angle and saw in it a negative principle, allowing the enemies of the Church to distort the true meanings of the Holy Scriptures, and for those who are far from their true understanding to cover up their misunderstanding with colorful images.
In medieval literature, allegory was used quite widely as an artistic device. A typical example is Prudentius' poem " Psychomachia"(late IV - early V centuries), painting pictures of battles between Virtues and Vices. In the 12th century allegorical poems by Bernard Sylvester (“ On the universality of the world, or Cosmography") and Alan Lille (" Against Claudius"). In the 13th century an allegorical " Romance of Rose"Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Men.
In the field of painting, artists who needed to depict the meanings of the indescribable sayings of Jesus Christ came to the aid of the allegorical method. As a result, visual images appeared that corresponded, for example, to the commandments of the Sermon on the Mount, including “Love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44), etc. In Germany during the Reformation, allegorical engravings called “The Mill of God” were widespread. They depicted God the Father seated on the clouds, and below Jesus Christ in the form of a miller pouring four evangelists into a mill funnel. There was also an inscription: “The mill stood idle for a long time, as if the miller had died.” The purely Protestant meaning of the allegory was obvious: the Catholic Church did not fulfill its purpose, but now through Christ, the evangelists, through the whole New Testament the path to truth has opened.
In the XV-XVI centuries. in England and France, in line with allegorical aesthetics, an independent genre of didactic drama emerged - morality. Allegorical characters personified sins and virtues appeared before the viewer. Scenes of struggle to strangle the hero were played out between them. At the same time, the scene could act as a small model of the universe, and the main character could symbolize the entire human race, troubled by moral contradictions and dramatic conflicts between good and evil.
In modern Christendom, Protestant theology, unlike Catholic theology, which allows for allegorical interpretations of the Bible, avoids appeals to this form of exegesis and insists on the need to seek the meanings of Scripture in itself, and not in side associative trains of thought and bursts of imagination.
◘ Lit.: Losev A. F. Shestakov V. P. History of aesthetic categories. - M. 1965 1 chapter "Allegory"); Popova M.K. Allegory in English literature of the Middle Ages. - Voronezh, 1993.
Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms
Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
♦ (ENG allegory)
(Greek allegoria - description of one thing through the image of another)
conveying the meaning of a story by attributing meaning to its elements or images that is not apparent from a literal reading. Can also be defined as an extended metaphor, where each element of the story is a symbol of meanings beyond the story.
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Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
(Greek allegoria - allegory), depiction of an abstract idea (concept) through an image. The meaning of an allegory, in contrast to a polysemantic symbol, is unambiguous and separated from the image; the connection between meaning and image is established by similarity (lion - strength, power or royalty). As a trope, allegory is used in fables, parables, and morality tales; in the visual arts it is expressed by certain attributes (justice - a woman with scales). Most characteristic of medieval art, Renaissance, mannerism, baroque, classicism.
Ozhegov's Dictionary
ALLEG ABOUT RIA, And, and.(book). Allegory, expression chegon. abstract, what thoughts, ideas in a specific image. Speak in allegories (unclear, with obscure hints about something).
| adj. allegorical, oh, oh.
Efremova's Dictionary
Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
and.
A form of allegory consisting in expressing an abstract concept through
specific image.
Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron
Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
Artistic isolation of abstract concepts through concrete representations. Religion, love, justice, discord, glory, war, peace, spring, summer, autumn, winter, death, etc. are depicted and represented as living beings. The qualities and appearance attached to these living beings are borrowed from the actions and consequences of what corresponds to the isolation contained in these concepts, for example. the isolation of battle and war is indicated by means of military weapons, seasons - by means of their corresponding flowers, fruits or activities, justice - by means of scales and a blindfold, death - by means of a clepsydra and a scythe. Obviously, allegory lacks the full plastic brightness and completeness of artistic creations, in which the concept and image completely coincide with each other and are produced inseparably by creative imagination, as if fused by nature. A. oscillates between the concept arising from reflection and its cunningly invented individual shell and, as a result of this half-heartedness, remains cold. A., corresponding to the rich way of representing the Eastern peoples, occupies a prominent place in the art of the East. On the contrary, it is alien to the Greeks, given the wonderful ideality of their gods, understood and imagined in the form of living personalities. A. appears here only in Alexandrian times, when the natural formation of myths ceased and the influence of eastern ideas became noticeable. Its dominance is stronger in Rome. But it dominated most of all the poetry and art of the Middle Ages from the end of the 13th century, at that time of ferment when the naive life of fantasy and the results of scholastic thinking mutually touch and, as far as possible, try to penetrate each other; So - with most troubadours, with Wolfram von Eschenbach, with Dante. "Feuerdank", a 16th-century Greek poem describing the life of Emperor Maximilian, may serve as an example of allegorical-epic poetry. A. has a special use in animal epic. It is very natural that different arts have significantly different relationships to A. It is most difficult for modern sculpture to avoid it. Always doomed to depict a person, it is often forced to give as allegorical isolation what Greek sculpture could give in the form of an individual and complete image of the life of a god.
Russian language dictionaries
Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language, Dal Vladimir
allegory
and. Greek allegory, heterodoxy, foreign language, circumlocution, circumlocution, prototype; speech, picture, statue in a figurative sense; parable; a pictorial, sensual image of a thought. The entire material, sensory world is nothing more than an allegory, according to the correspondence, of the spiritual world. Allegorical, allegorical, allegorical, figurative, roundabout, circumstantial; allegorist m. allegorist.
Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. D.N. Ushakov
allegory
(ale), allegories, w. (Greek allegoria).
Allegory is a visual, pictorial expression of abstract concepts through a concrete image (lit.). This poem is full of allegories.
only units Allegorical meaning, allegorical meaning. Every fable contains some kind of... allegory.
only plural Vague, incomprehensible speech, absurdity (colloquial). He wrung out such allegories and equivocations that, it seems, a century would not have achieved any sense. Gogol. Don’t give me allegories, but speak straight.
Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. S.I.Ozhegov, N.Yu.Shvedova.
allegory
And, well. (book). Allegory, expression of something. abstract, some. thoughts, ideas in a specific image. Speak in allegories (vaguely, with obscure allusions to something). || adj. allegorical, -aya, -oe. ALLEGRO (special).
adv. About the tempo of musical performance: fast, lively.
uncl., cf. Musical composition or part of it at that pace.
New explanatory dictionary of the Russian language, T. F. Efremova.
allegory
and. A form of allegory that consists in expressing an abstract concept through a concrete image.
Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998
allegory
ALLEGORY (Greek allegoria - allegory) depiction of an abstract idea (concept) through an image. The meaning of an allegory, in contrast to a polysemantic symbol, is unambiguous and separated from the image; the connection between meaning and image is established by similarity (lion strength, power or royalty). As a trope, allegory is used in fables, parables, and morality tales; in the visual arts it is expressed by certain attributes (justice - a woman with scales). Most characteristic of medieval art, Renaissance, mannerism, baroque, classicism.
Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
(Greek allēgoría ≈ allegory), a conventional representation in art of abstract ideas that are not assimilated into the artistic image, but retain their independence and remain external to it. The connection between image and meaning is established in A. by analogy (for example, a lion as the personification of strength, etc.). In contrast to the polysemy of a symbol, the meaning of a symbol is characterized by an unambiguous, constant definiteness and is revealed not directly in the artistic image, but only by interpreting the explicit or hidden hints and indications contained in the image, that is, by subsuming the image under any concept (religious dogmas, moral , philosophical, scientific ideas, etc.). Since in an artistic image the universal and the particular are inseparably intertwined with each other, A. cannot exhaust the content of the image, even being an essential and necessary component of it.
The term "A." first found in treatises on oratory by Pseudo-Longinus and Cicero. Medieval aesthetics saw in art one of the four meanings that a work of art has: allegorical meaning, along with grammatical (literal), moral, and anagogical (educational). Like a specific shape artistic image A. was discussed in detail in German aesthetics of the 18th and early 19th centuries. (Winkelmann, Goethe, Schelling, Hegel, Solger, Schopenhauer, etc.).
In literature, many allegorical images are taken from mythology and folklore. A fable, a morality play, a parable, as well as many works of medieval eastern poetry are based on A.; It is also found in other genres (“Three Keys” by A. S. Pushkin, fairy tales by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin). In the middle of the 19th century. the concept of A. is narrowed to artistic technique. See Trope.
In the visual arts, A. (figures with constant attributes, figured groups and compositions personifying any concepts) constitutes special genre, the features of which are already noticeable in ancient mythological images. A. virtues, vices, etc., common in the Middle Ages, are filled with humanistic content in the Renaissance. Artwork becomes especially complex and sophisticated in the art of Mannerism, Baroque, and Rococo. Classicism and academicism considered art as part of the “high” historical genre. In modern art, A. gives way to more developed in figurative and psychological terms symbolic images(see Symbol).
Lit.: Losev A.F., Shestakov V.P., History of aesthetic categories, [M.], 1965, p. 237 ≈ 57; Sgrensen V. A., Symbol und Symbolismus in den asthetischen Theorien des XVIII. Jahrhunderts und der deutschen Romantik, Kbh., 1963.
Wikipedia
Allegory (group)
"Allegory"- Russian folk-rock band from Minusinsk (Krasnoyarsk Territory). Founded on February 16, 2003.
The Allegory group plays acoustic and electroacoustic music in the folk rock style. Instruments: kalyuka, zhaleika, recorder, hobrach, didgeridoo, conga, bongo, djembe, tambourine, acoustic guitar, drum kit, electric guitar, bass guitar. The group was organized by a group of people interested in the history and life of the ancient Slavs, who had previously taken a direct part in organizing many role playing games historical modeling dedicated to the pre-Christian era, as a result of which it was chosen musical style team and its future direction creative activity. Over time, the group's style has transformed into a fusion of ethnic music from different cultures and modern styles.
Allegory (disambiguation)
Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language:
- Allegory is a conventional depiction of abstract ideas through a specific artistic image or dialogue.
- Allegory is a Russian folk rock band from Minusinsk, Krasnoyarsk region.
Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
Allegory(from - allegory) - an artistic representation of ideas (concepts) through a specific artistic image or dialogue.
Allegory is used as a trope in poetry, parables, and morality. It arose on the basis of mythology, was reflected in folklore and was developed in the fine arts. The main way to depict an allegory is to generalize human concepts; representations are revealed in the images and behavior of animals, plants, mythological and fairy-tale characters, and inanimate objects that receive figurative meaning.
Example: justice - Themis.
Allegory is the artistic isolation of concepts using specific representations. Religion, love, soul, justice, discord, glory, war, peace, spring, summer, autumn, winter, death, etc. are depicted and presented as living beings. The qualities and appearance attached to these living beings are borrowed from the actions and consequences of what corresponds to the isolation contained in these concepts; for example, the isolation of battle and war is indicated by means of military weapons, seasons - by means of their corresponding flowers, fruits or activities, impartiality - by means of scales and a blindfold, death - by means of a clepsydra and a scythe.
Obviously, allegory lacks the full plastic brightness and completeness of artistic creations, in which the concept and image completely coincide with each other and are produced inseparably by creative imagination, as if fused by nature. The allegory oscillates between a concept derived from reflection and its cunningly invented individual shell and, as a result of this half-heartedness, remains cold.
Allegory, corresponding to the rich imagery of the way of representing the Eastern peoples, occupies a prominent place in the art of the East. On the contrary, it is alien to the Greeks, given the wonderful ideality of their gods, understood and imagined in the form of living personalities. Allegory appears here only in Alexandrian times, when the natural formation of myths ceased and the influence of Eastern ideas became noticeable. Its dominance is more noticeable in Rome. But it dominated most of all the poetry and art of the Middle Ages from the end of the 13th century, at a time of ferment when the naive life of fantasy and the results of scholastic thinking mutually touch and, as far as possible, try to penetrate each other. So - with most troubadours, with Wolfram von Eschenbach, with Dante. Feuerdank, a 16th-century Greek poem describing the life of Emperor Maximilian, may serve as an example of allegorical-epic poetry.
Allegory has a special use in animal epic. It is very natural that different arts have significantly different relationships to allegory. It is most difficult for modern sculpture to avoid. Always doomed to depict a personality, it is often forced to give as allegorical isolation what Greek sculpture could give in the form of an individual and complete image of the life of a god.
For example, John Bunyan’s novel “The Pilgrim’s Progress to the Heavenly Land” and Vladimir Vysotsky’s song “Truth and Lies” are written in the form of an allegory.
Examples of the use of the word allegory in literature.
In the space between them is an engraved portrait of Richard Cobden, enlarged photographs of Martineau, Huxley and George Eliot, autotypes allegories J.
With all the traditional obligatory theological orientation of auto as a specific genre allegories Calderon is much deeper and more philosophical than his predecessors, and the characters depicted in them are much more humane.
An attempt to revive auto as a special genre of dramatic allegories- of course, without religious basis, - built on modern content, were undertaken by such major writers of our time as Rafael Alberti and Miguel Hernandez.
However, unlike the poets of the Middle Ages allegory for Herbert is not a way of seeing the world, but poetic device, which he needed to create the necessary effect in the spirit of Baroque art.
Now she was busy allegory John Bunyan and, forgetting about everything else, talked about her incessantly.
And when the poet writes about white dew that will become frost by morning, this is also about the transience of life, for since ancient times human life has been compared to a dew melting from a ray of sun, and white frost - allegory gray hair.
Serpent and Woman, is allegory the enmity between the sin associated with the worldly laws, or serpent, and the obedience of faith embodied in the church of the Lord, which is the woman.
But just now he was attached to the tavern for a long time, breaking such allegories and remarks that, it seems, a century would not have achieved any sense.
The offer received from the Berlin intendant Iffland to write an apotheosis for the return of the Prussian king seemed so honorable and tempting to him that he temporarily abandoned all other poetic ideas in order to compose his own bizarrely meaningful, deeply personal philosophical apotheosis, unlike any other apotheosis in the world. allegory.
It is evidenced by those barely noticeable magical touches with which the artist transforms a wandering plot into a cabalistic allegory.
Are you really of the opinion that Homer, when he wrote the Iliad and Odyssey, was thinking about those allegories, which were attributed to him by Plutarch, Heraclides Pontius, Eustathius, Cornutus and which Poliziano subsequently stole from them?
If you want, let's try to enrich this unsuccessful allegory another example.
Makovsky equally passionately painted a landscape or a genre scene, a portrait of a scientist or a kept woman of the nouveau riche, he admired the patterns ancient life, painted a Bacchic panel in the spirit of Tiepolo, the heads of beauties, allegories and decorations, agreed to paint screens for bedrooms, inventing decorations for the palanquin of an infirm aristocrat - and he did all this not somehow, not by the way, but with the same brilliance!
However, this allegory is far from perfect, and through it I was just going to demonstrate how individual streams and channels of heresies and all kinds of renewal movements, when the river no longer holds them in itself, multiply immensely and multiply and intertwine many times.
When the author writes literary work, paints a picture or creates another work of art, he aims to convey as accurately as possible the character of the characters, their inner world and relationships. Poetry, painting, sculpture are not just a collection of words and information. If you use only clear definitions in your poems, they are unlikely to hook the reader in any way. That is why there are so many means of artistic expression in the Russian language. One of them is allegory. What an allegory is can be understood using specific examples.
How is it used in different types of art?
An allegory, if you try to formulate a definition, can be called a specific device designed to call something abstract a concrete concept or subject.
Allegory is used as a means of expression in many forms of art:
- In painting, in the Renaissance, very often in paintings, artists, drawing various objects, put deep meaning into the paintings. These were not just compositions from incomprehensible elements, it was the artist’s call, his view of the world around him. However, not all spectators could unravel the meaning, but only those who were familiar with the concepts of allegory;
- In sculpture. The streets of cities, especially those that are cultural centers, are often decorated with monuments, sculptures and statues. But each monument expresses a certain idea;
- In literature. Very often, poets disguise feelings and intangible concepts under animals, plants, objects, giving the poem a unique style and thereby giving free rein to the reader’s imagination.
In sculpture and painting
An example of an allegory in painting is the painting “Freedom Leading the People” by Eugene Delacroix, French artist. In the painting, freedom, which is an intangible, abstract concept, is depicted as a woman with a red flag, who rises above other people. The weapon in her hand symbolizes strength, and the turned head is a call to action.
A striking example of an allegory in sculpture is “Motherland,” which personifies the victory over the Nazis and says that Volgograd struck the enemy as if with a sword. And the “Bronze Horseman” in St. Petersburg emphasizes the greatness of Peter I, every detail has its own hidden meaning: the wave-shaped block is an element, and the horse is overcoming obstacles.
What is allegory in literature?
If you open an explanatory dictionary, you can find the following definition of allegory - this is extended metaphor, allegory, a trope that enhances the expressiveness of a work by representing an abstract concept in a concrete image or expression.
That is, it is like an artistic synonym. For example, in Krylov's fables all the characters are animals, but each animal represents an intensified expression of human vices or, conversely, virtues. The fox is cunning, the crow is stupidity, and the oak is wisdom.
If the author had presented the same traits of human characters, but in a different way, for example, he would have described a simply cunning, simply stupid or simply wise person, it would hardly have been possible to convey to the reader life truths in such an ironic, light and simple form.
What is the difference between metaphor and allegory?
Allegory can be confused with metaphor, because both concepts mean expressing something through something .
But an allegory is a more extended metaphor:
- Metaphor is a more specific, narrow expression, allegory is broader, it is a whole picture of allegories;
- Metaphor is a figurative meaning based on similarity; allegory uses associations more. For example, the expression “cunning as a fox” would be a metaphor, but calling someone a “fox” would be an allegory;
- A metaphor most often expresses an animated concept, and an allegory an abstract one. That is, about a person, you can say “proud as a lion” and this will be a metaphor, but the image of a lion means strength, power and pride - this is an example of an allegory.
What is an allegory: examples
Allegory is used very often in literature. A vivid image of allegories is fables, in which each character is a personification.
Poetry also uses this means of expressing thoughts. Allegories are not easy to understand.
For example, in the lines of Marina Tsvetaeva “Poems grow like stars and like roses”:
- Stone slabs are a creative lull, when the poet has neither ideas nor inspiration;
- Heavenly guest - sudden insight, muse, with four petals, meaning a flower, which in turn personifies something beautiful;
- The law of the star is a certain vision of the world, its undercurrents;
- The flower formula says that only a poet knows how to convey all the truths in words.
In the lines of “Winter Night” by Boris Pasternak, there are also allegorical expressions:
- Blizzard and winter mean adversity that has come everywhere,
- Candle - unquenchable hope;
- “On the illuminated ceiling” - the illuminated ceiling symbolizes that, despite difficulties, hope can illuminate everything around;
- “Crossing of arms, crossing of legs” - passion and love;
- “It was snowing all month in February, and every now and then the candle burned on the table, the candle kept warm” - here the last lines seem to be talking about how persistent the small candle turned out to be, which, despite the month of adversity, burned.
Application in religion
Any religion is designed to change a person in better side. Parables and commandments teach people love, mercy, justice and humility. For example, in the Christian religion, in every parable, all characters, objects and actions are allegorical.
The parable of the talents: it tells how the owner, leaving for another country, gave his slaves talents: one five, another three, the third one. When he returned, he saw that the one who had five talents multiplied them and received only ten, the one who had three did the same, and the servant who had one talent buried it in the ground.
- The owner is God, talents are all that we are awarded from birth: abilities, opportunities and health.
- A slave who has buried talent in the ground is a lazy person who does not want to develop and improve.
Almost every parable is built on allegories in order to more easily convey the truth to people.
Art serves to lead a person to perfection, otherwise it is not art, but simple catering. In order to better convey to a person this or that understanding of the world, it is necessary to create vivid images and enhance contrasts.
Therefore, art cannot be dry, monotonous and open to understanding. There are various means of expression for this. Any true master knows not only what an allegory, metaphor, epithet, symbol is, but also knows how to correctly apply all this in his creations.
Video: examples of allegories and metaphors in creativity
In this video, literature teacher Elena Krasnova will tell you what allegory is and how it is used in art, giving the most striking examples: