XPost: alt.books.cs-lewis, rec.arts.books, alt.usage.english   
   XPost: alt.english.usage, alt.religion.christianity   
   From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net   
      
   On Tue, 17 May 2016 17:28:40 -0400, Tak To    
   wrote:   
      
   >Back to Laura Miller's article.  I find it annoying that she   
   >spent three paragraphs complaining about misuses before explaining   
   >why she considered them misuses.  She gave a short definition,   
   >one example, and then switched quickly to complaining about   
   >the form being neglected.  It is pretty bad expository writing.   
   >   
   >I get the impression that to her, an allegory must be a fiction   
   >with a undisguised (or crudely disguised) metaphor, and that   
   >the metaphor must be about an abstract theme that has enough   
   >gravitas (for her).   
      
   Since the point of the article was to complain about the misuse, I'm   
   not surprised that she began with that.   
      
   The English usage question (as opposed to the literary genre question)   
   concerns the changing meaning of the word "allegory". Miller objects   
   to the too-broad meaning, and proposes (IMO) a too-narrow one instead.   
   I think she overstates her case, but sometimes you have to do that if   
   you want to get the point across.   
      
      
   --   
   Steve Hayes   
   Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm   
        http://www.goodreads.com/hayesstw   
        http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/Methodius   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)