Monday, 31 January 2011

What are some allusions in As I Lay Dying?

Anis a
term used by literary critics to describe an author referring to elements from literature, the
arts, history, or popular culture within a text. Another term sometimes used to describe this
phenomenon is "intertextuality". Such references have two purposes. The first is
specificity. The word "Penelope" conjures up a more specific and vivid image than
"loyal wife". The second is compactness. A reference to Sisyphus conveys a painful,
dull, endlessly repeated task in a single word.

There are two main classes of
allusions used by Faulkner in his novel , those to the Bible and to
classical literature and mythology, both of which would have been very familiar to his original
readers. 

A typical example is Peabody describing Addie's "love that
passeth understanding" for Jewel, a phrase the echoes the Biblical description of Jesus'
love for humanity and is commonly...

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