Allusion
An allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference to, or representation of, people, places, events, literary work, myths, or works of art, either directly or by implication. M. H. Abrams defined allusion as "a brief reference, explicit or indirect, to a person, place or event, or to another literary work or passage". It is left to the reader or hearer to make the connection (Fowler); where the connection is detailed in depth by the author, it is preferable to call it "a reference".
In a freer informal definition, allusion is a passing or casual reference, an incidental mention of something, either directly or by implication: In the stock market he met his Waterloo.
Functioning
A sobriquet is an allusion: by metonymy one aspect of a person or other referent is selected to identify it, and it is this shared aspect that makes an allusion evocative. In an allusion to "the city that never sleeps", New York will be recognized. Recognizing the figure in this condensed puzzle-disguise additionally serves to reinforce cultural solidarity between the maker of the remark and the hearer: their shared familiarity with The Big Apple bonds them. Some aspect of the referent must be invoked and identified, in order for the tacit association to be made; the allusion is indirect in part because "it depend on something more than mere substitution of a referent" The allusion depends as well on the author's intent; an industrious reader may search out parallels to a figure of speech or a passage, of which the author under examination was unaware, and offer them as unconscious allusions— coincidences that a critic might not find illuminating. Addressing such issues is an aspect of hermeneutics.
William Irwin remarks that an allusion moves in only one direction: "If A alludes to B, then B does not allude to A. The Bible does not allude to Shakespeare, though Shakespeare may allude to the Bible." Irwin appends a note: "Only a divine author, outside of time, would seem capable of alluding to a later text." This is the basis for Christian readings of Old Testament prophecy, which asserts that passages are to be read as allusions to future events.
Examples of allusion
In Homer, brief allusions could be made to mythic themes of generations previous to the main narrative because they were already familiar to the epic's hearers: one example is the theme of the Calydonian boarhunt. In Hellenistic Alexandria, literary culture and a fixed literary canon known to readers and hearers, made a densely allusive poetry effective; the poems of Callimachus offer the best-known examples.
In discussing the richly allusive poetry of Virgil's Georgics, R. F. Thomas distinguished six categories of allusive reference, which are applicable to a wider cultural sphere. These types are
Casual Reference, "the use of language which recalls a specific antecedent, but only in a general sense" that is relatively unimportant to the new context;
Single Reference, in which the hearer or reader is intended to "recall the context of the model and apply that context to the new situation"; such a specific single reference in Virgil, according to Thomas, is a means of "making connections or conveying ideas on a level of intense subtlety";
Self-Reference, where the locus is in the poet's own work;
Corrective Allusion, where the imitation is clearly in opposition to the original source's intentions;
Apparent Reference ""which seems clearly to recall a specific model but which on closer inspection frustrates that intention" and
Multiple Reference or Conflation, which refers in various ways simultaneously to several sources, fusing and transforming the cultural traditions.
Allusion differs from the similar term intertextuality in that it is an intentional effort on the author's part. The success of an allusion depends in part on at least some of its audience "getting" it. Allusions may be made increasingly obscure, until at last they are understood by the author alone, who thereby retreats into a private language.
The use of Allusion has got a profound significance in the novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young man. Throughout the novel, we find the use of this literary technique. In the second chapter of the novel, the reference of the novel The count of Monte Cristo is an example of the use of Allusion. The reference of the use of this novel used as a shelter of Stephen Dedalus. Because it’s the developing stage of stephen’s self Consciousness where he takes the shelter in the world of literature.
The three days retreat is also a part of Allusion. Because here we find the of Biblical references.
“Remember only thy last things and thou shalt not sin for ever”. There words are taken from the book Ecclesiastes, seventh Chapter, fourteenth verse. The three days retreat has a great impact in Stephens self Consciousness. Became he thought, he has no chance of salvation for committing sin.
“Stephens’s heart had withered up like a flower of the desert that feels the simoom coming from afar”.
After that, we find the transformation of Stephen. He became extreme religious even he has been considered to be a priest but denies it.
The vision of Emma is also an use of Allusion. Became we find the reference of Dante’s divine comedy. When Dante is visiting in different parts of Hell, his beloved comes as a salvation with Virgin Mary for him. But Stephen is seeing Emma with Virgin Mary. So there is a possibility of salvation.
The name Stephen Dedalus was chosen by James Joyce of link his hero with the mythical Greek hero, Daedalus. The Latin epigraph is from the Roman poet Ovid’s version of the story. So its an allusion. In Greek myth, Daedalus was an architect, inventor, and craftsman whose name is often translated as cunning artificer. Daedalus built a labyrinth where he and his son Icarus was imprisoned by king Minos. Daedalus fashioned wings of wax and feathers so that he and his son could escape. But when Icarus flew too high, too near the sun his wings melted and he fall into the sea but his more cautious father flew to safely. The Daedalus myth gives a basic structure to this novel At first, Stephen doesn’t understand the significance of his unusual name. He comes to realize by the fourth chapter, that like Daedalus he is caught in a maze. If he wants to be free, he must fly high above his hazardous existence At the end of chapter five, he is poised to try his wings.
Stephen searches the beauty in the theory of Aristotle and Aquinas. Though he was thinking again and again about these two philosophers but he has given his own view over different literary aspect. The following conversation between dean and Stephen is an example of Allusion.
“You are an artist, are you not, Mr Dedalus? Said the dean, glancing up and blinking his pale eyes. The object of the artist is the creation of the beautiful. What the beautiful is another question.
He rubbed his hands slowly and drily over the difficulty.
– Can you solve that question now? He asked.
– Aquinas, answered Stephen, says Pulcra sunt quae visa placent.
– This fire before us, said the dean, will be pleasing to the eye. Will it therefore be beautiful?
– In so far as it is apprehended by the sight, which I suppose means here esthetic intellection, it will be beautiful. But Aquinas also says Bonum est in quod tendit appetites. In so far as it satisfies the animal craving for warmt fire is a good. In hell, however, it is an evil”.
Thus in this conversation, we find the use of Greek and Latin words and phrases which is another example of allusion.
So James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a perfect example of the use of allusion. Joyce uses this literary technique to develop the plot which shows his mastery over the topic.
An allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference to, or representation of, people, places, events, literary work, myths, or works of art, either directly or by implication. M. H. Abrams defined allusion as "a brief reference, explicit or indirect, to a person, place or event, or to another literary work or passage". It is left to the reader or hearer to make the connection (Fowler); where the connection is detailed in depth by the author, it is preferable to call it "a reference".
In a freer informal definition, allusion is a passing or casual reference, an incidental mention of something, either directly or by implication: In the stock market he met his Waterloo.
Functioning
A sobriquet is an allusion: by metonymy one aspect of a person or other referent is selected to identify it, and it is this shared aspect that makes an allusion evocative. In an allusion to "the city that never sleeps", New York will be recognized. Recognizing the figure in this condensed puzzle-disguise additionally serves to reinforce cultural solidarity between the maker of the remark and the hearer: their shared familiarity with The Big Apple bonds them. Some aspect of the referent must be invoked and identified, in order for the tacit association to be made; the allusion is indirect in part because "it depend on something more than mere substitution of a referent" The allusion depends as well on the author's intent; an industrious reader may search out parallels to a figure of speech or a passage, of which the author under examination was unaware, and offer them as unconscious allusions— coincidences that a critic might not find illuminating. Addressing such issues is an aspect of hermeneutics.
William Irwin remarks that an allusion moves in only one direction: "If A alludes to B, then B does not allude to A. The Bible does not allude to Shakespeare, though Shakespeare may allude to the Bible." Irwin appends a note: "Only a divine author, outside of time, would seem capable of alluding to a later text." This is the basis for Christian readings of Old Testament prophecy, which asserts that passages are to be read as allusions to future events.
Examples of allusion
In Homer, brief allusions could be made to mythic themes of generations previous to the main narrative because they were already familiar to the epic's hearers: one example is the theme of the Calydonian boarhunt. In Hellenistic Alexandria, literary culture and a fixed literary canon known to readers and hearers, made a densely allusive poetry effective; the poems of Callimachus offer the best-known examples.
In discussing the richly allusive poetry of Virgil's Georgics, R. F. Thomas distinguished six categories of allusive reference, which are applicable to a wider cultural sphere. These types are
Casual Reference, "the use of language which recalls a specific antecedent, but only in a general sense" that is relatively unimportant to the new context;
Single Reference, in which the hearer or reader is intended to "recall the context of the model and apply that context to the new situation"; such a specific single reference in Virgil, according to Thomas, is a means of "making connections or conveying ideas on a level of intense subtlety";
Self-Reference, where the locus is in the poet's own work;
Corrective Allusion, where the imitation is clearly in opposition to the original source's intentions;
Apparent Reference ""which seems clearly to recall a specific model but which on closer inspection frustrates that intention" and
Multiple Reference or Conflation, which refers in various ways simultaneously to several sources, fusing and transforming the cultural traditions.
Allusion differs from the similar term intertextuality in that it is an intentional effort on the author's part. The success of an allusion depends in part on at least some of its audience "getting" it. Allusions may be made increasingly obscure, until at last they are understood by the author alone, who thereby retreats into a private language.
The use of Allusion has got a profound significance in the novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young man. Throughout the novel, we find the use of this literary technique. In the second chapter of the novel, the reference of the novel The count of Monte Cristo is an example of the use of Allusion. The reference of the use of this novel used as a shelter of Stephen Dedalus. Because it’s the developing stage of stephen’s self Consciousness where he takes the shelter in the world of literature.
The three days retreat is also a part of Allusion. Because here we find the of Biblical references.
“Remember only thy last things and thou shalt not sin for ever”. There words are taken from the book Ecclesiastes, seventh Chapter, fourteenth verse. The three days retreat has a great impact in Stephens self Consciousness. Became he thought, he has no chance of salvation for committing sin.
“Stephens’s heart had withered up like a flower of the desert that feels the simoom coming from afar”.
After that, we find the transformation of Stephen. He became extreme religious even he has been considered to be a priest but denies it.
The vision of Emma is also an use of Allusion. Became we find the reference of Dante’s divine comedy. When Dante is visiting in different parts of Hell, his beloved comes as a salvation with Virgin Mary for him. But Stephen is seeing Emma with Virgin Mary. So there is a possibility of salvation.
The name Stephen Dedalus was chosen by James Joyce of link his hero with the mythical Greek hero, Daedalus. The Latin epigraph is from the Roman poet Ovid’s version of the story. So its an allusion. In Greek myth, Daedalus was an architect, inventor, and craftsman whose name is often translated as cunning artificer. Daedalus built a labyrinth where he and his son Icarus was imprisoned by king Minos. Daedalus fashioned wings of wax and feathers so that he and his son could escape. But when Icarus flew too high, too near the sun his wings melted and he fall into the sea but his more cautious father flew to safely. The Daedalus myth gives a basic structure to this novel At first, Stephen doesn’t understand the significance of his unusual name. He comes to realize by the fourth chapter, that like Daedalus he is caught in a maze. If he wants to be free, he must fly high above his hazardous existence At the end of chapter five, he is poised to try his wings.
Stephen searches the beauty in the theory of Aristotle and Aquinas. Though he was thinking again and again about these two philosophers but he has given his own view over different literary aspect. The following conversation between dean and Stephen is an example of Allusion.
“You are an artist, are you not, Mr Dedalus? Said the dean, glancing up and blinking his pale eyes. The object of the artist is the creation of the beautiful. What the beautiful is another question.
He rubbed his hands slowly and drily over the difficulty.
– Can you solve that question now? He asked.
– Aquinas, answered Stephen, says Pulcra sunt quae visa placent.
– This fire before us, said the dean, will be pleasing to the eye. Will it therefore be beautiful?
– In so far as it is apprehended by the sight, which I suppose means here esthetic intellection, it will be beautiful. But Aquinas also says Bonum est in quod tendit appetites. In so far as it satisfies the animal craving for warmt fire is a good. In hell, however, it is an evil”.
Thus in this conversation, we find the use of Greek and Latin words and phrases which is another example of allusion.
So James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a perfect example of the use of allusion. Joyce uses this literary technique to develop the plot which shows his mastery over the topic.
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