The Language of Allegory: Defining the Genre

By Maureen Quilligan

Book Overview

This lively and innovative work treats a body of literature not previously regarded as a unified genre. Offering comparative readings of a number of texts that are traditionally called allegories and that cover a wide time span, Maureen Quilligan formulates a vocabulary for talking about the distinctive generic elements they share. The texts she considers range from the twelfth-century De planctu naturae to Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow , and include such works as Le Roman de la Rose , Langland's Piers Plowman , Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter , Melville's Confidence Man , and Spenser's Faerie Queene . Whether or not readers agree with this book, they will enjoy and profit from it.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801480515
• ISBN13: 9780801480515
• Release Date: May 1992
• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher