allegorizing
Making stories symbolic
Allegorizing is the act of interpreting something as allegory or expressing something in allegorical form.
A reader allegorizes a text by finding symbolic meanings beneath the surface narrative: Medieval scholars spent centuries allegorizing Greek myths.
A writer allegorizes by encoding abstract ideas in concrete characters and events: Orwell was allegorizing Soviet history through a farm of talking animals.
Instructive allegorical narrative
- fableMoral tale with animals
- satireMockery exposing vice
- narrativeAccount of events
- fictionImagined narrative work
prose · exemplum · allusion · typology · figuration · moral tale · cautionary tale · beast fable
Representational sign or device
- figureOutline or numeral
- representationDepiction or likeness
- personificationAttributing humanity to non-humans
- iconPictorial screen symbol
totem · motif · device · archetype · symbol · signifier · cipher · trope
Critical textual interpretation
- hermeneuticsStudy of interpretation methods
- decodingExtracting meaning from symbols
- unpackingRemoving items from containers
- elucidationAct of explaining clearly
reading · commentary · analysis · explication · gloss · contextualizing · semiotics · deconstruction
Delivering ethical lectures
- teachingProfession of instructing others
- sermonizingLecturing on morals
- preachingDelivering moral discourse
- instructiveServing to teach
edifying · hortatory · homiletic · didacticism · exemplary · cautionary · ethical · normative
Symbolic rather than literal
- representationalDepicting recognizable subjects
- allusiveContaining indirect references
- analogicalBased on likeness
- connotativeImplying beyond literal sense
suggestive · metonymic · imagistic · similitude · illustrative · symbolic · indirect · veiled
parable
Instructive allegorical narrative
fiction · prose · exemplum · allusion · typology · figuration · moral tale · cautionary tale · beast fable · Pilgrim's Progress
emblem
Representational sign or device
- figureOutline or numeral
- representationDepiction or likeness
- personificationAttributing humanity to non-humans
icon · totem · motif · device · archetype · symbol · signifier · cipher · trope · conceit
exegesis
Critical textual interpretation
- hermeneuticsStudy of interpretation methods
- decodingExtracting meaning from symbols
- unpackingRemoving items from containers
elucidation · reading · commentary · analysis · explication · gloss · contextualizing · semiotics · deconstruction · exposition
moralizing
Delivering ethical lectures
- teachingProfession of instructing others
- sermonizingLecturing on morals
- preachingDelivering moral discourse
instructive · edifying · hortatory · homiletic · didacticism · exemplary · cautionary · ethical · normative · pedagogical
metaphorical
Symbolic rather than literal
- representationalDepicting recognizable subjects
- allusiveContaining indirect references
- analogicalBased on likeness
connotative · suggestive · metonymic · imagistic · similitude · illustrative · symbolic · indirect · veiled · oblique
allegorizingliteralizing
Treating figures as facts
taking at face value · literal interpretation · historicizing · concretizing · particularizing
allegorizingrealistic depiction
Truthful visual representation
documenting · chronicling · reporting · recounting · recording
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