Allegory

寓言

An allegory is a narrative, whether in prose or verse, in which the agents and actions, and sometimes the setting as well, are contrived by the author to make coherent sense on the “literal,” or primary level of signification, and at the same time to signify a second, correlated order of signification. It can be divided into two main types: 1. Historical and political allegory, in which the characters and actions that are signified literally in their turn represent, or "allegorize," historical personages and events; 2. The allegory of idea, in which the literal characters represent concepts and the plot allegorizes an abstract doctrine or thesis.

无论是以散文还是诗歌的形式出现，寓言都是一种叙事文体，作者通过构造人物、情节，有时还包括场景的描写，构成完整的“字面”意义，即第一层意义，同时借此喻表现另一层相关的意义。寓言可分为两种主要类型：1. 历史与政治寓言——借助字面上描写的人物与情节指代或“讽喻”历史人物与事件；2. 观念寓言——故事里的人物象征概念，故事情节用于传达、阐明抽象的训诲或论点。