Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics
Extending a metaphor through an entire speech or passage, or representing abstract concepts through the image of an acting person (‘personification’). Allegory is also referred to as an extended metaphor: for example, Reverie…a musical young girl, unpredictable, tender, enigmatic, provocative, from whom I never seek an explanation of her escapades (André Breton, Farouche à quatre feuilles, p. 13). The allegory is sometimes called ‘pure’ when every main term in the passage has a double significance, ‘mixed’ when one or more terms do not.
References
Bloomfield, M.W. 1962–3. A grammatical approach to personification allegory. MPh 60.
161–71.
Fletcher, A. 1964. Allegory: the theory of a symbolic mode. Ithaca, NY.
Frye, N. 1957. Anatomy of criticism: four essays. Princeton, NJ.
MacQueen, J. 1976. Allegory. London.
Quilligan, M. 1979. The language of allegory: defining the genre. Ithaca, NY.
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