The Presence of Allegory: Allegory as Narrative in Modern Fiction

FAIN: FT-53707-05

Gary Chase Johnson
University of Findlay (Findlay, OH 45840-3653)

This is a book-length manuscript in which I argue that the most common ways of understanding allegory (as a mode or a genre) are insufficient to deal with the presence of allegory in narrative fiction from the twentieth century. As an alternative, I propose a narrative-based definition of allegory. Conceiving of allegory as a narrative structure will better equip critics to reconcile the obvious presence of allegory in modern literature (think of Kafka, for example) with the fact that many of these same works strongly resist the very interpretations they seem to invite.

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The Vitality of Allegory: Figural Narrative in Modern and Contemporary Fiction (Book)
Title: The Vitality of Allegory: Figural Narrative in Modern and Contemporary Fiction
Author: Gary Johnson
Editor: James Phelan, Peter J. Rabinowitz, Robyn Warhol
Abstract: In The Vitality of Allegory Gary Johnson argues that the rumors of allegory’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Surveying the broad landscape of modern and contemporary narrative fiction, including works from Europe, Africa, and North America, Johnson demonstrates that although wholly allegorical narratives have become relatively rare, allegory itself remains a vibrant presence in the ongoing life of the novel, a presence that can manifest itself in a variety of ways. Working from the premise that conventional conceptions of allegory have been inadequate, Johnson takes a rhetorical approach, defining allegory as the transformation of some phenomenon into a figural narrative for some larger purpose. This reconception allows us to recognize that allegory can govern a whole narrative—and can do so strongly or weakly—or be an embedded part or a thematic subject of a narrative and that it can even be used ironically. By developing these theoretical points through careful and insightful analysis of works such as Jackson’s “The Lottery,” Orwell’s Animal Farm, Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and The Trial, Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Roth’s American Pastoral, Mann’s Death in Venice, Coetzee’s Elizabeth Costello, and several works by John Barth, Johnson himself transforms our understanding of allegory and of the history of the modern and contemporary novel.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://www.ohiostatepress.org/index.htm?books/book pages/johnson vitality.html
Primary URL Description: The Ohio State University Press
Publisher: The Ohio State University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780814211823
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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