Allegory, Myth, and Symbol

by Morton W. Bloomfield

After a long period of neglect and even disdain, allegory and myth in the broadest sense are coming again into their own as central tools to the understanding of literary art. The essays in this volume, ranging in time from the Middle Ages to the present and in subject from poetry to philosophy, explore the multiple interpretations of allegory, as well as the important distinctions among allegory, myth, and symbol.Besides assisting in the understanding of particular literary works and authors, this book makes a worthy contribution to comprehension of the major role allegory plays in literature and indeed in life.Among the nineteen essays are "'Awaking Dream' The Symbolic Alternative to Allegory," by Murray Krieger; "The Modern Revival of Myth," by James Engell; "The Two Allegories," by J. Hillis Miller; "The 'Rhythm of Metaphor' Yeats, Pound, Eliot and the Unity of Image in Postsymbolist Poetry," by Ronald Bush; and "Sartor Resartus and the Inverse The Art of Humorous Deconstruction," by Peter Allan Dale.

Genres: Theory

390 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1981

About the author

Morton W. Bloomfield was an American Medievalist. He was the Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of English at Harvard University. He is best known for his scholarly work, teaching and mentoring on Medieval literature, language, as well as contributions to intellectual history, literary criticism and theory. He also was one of the founders of the first U.S. national center for the humanities, the National Humanities Center.