Allusion

Not to be confused with Illusion.

Allusion is a figure of speech, in which an object or circumstance from an unrelated context is referred to covertly or indirectly.[1][2] It is left to the audience to make a direct connection.[3] Where the connection is directly and explicitly stated (as opposed to indirectly implied) by the author, it is instead usually termed a reference.[4][5][6] In the arts, a literary allusion puts the alluded text in a new context under which it assumes new meanings and denotations.[7] It is not possible to predetermine the nature of all the new meanings and inter-textual patterns that an allusion will generate.[7] Literary allusion is closely related to parody and pastiche, which are also "text-linking" literary devices.[7]

In a wider, more informal context, an allusion is a passing or casually short statement indicating broader meaning. It is an incidental mention of something, either directly or by implication, such as "In the stock market, he met his Waterloo."

  1. ^ "allusion | Definition of allusion in English by Oxford Dictionaries". Oxford Dictionaries | English. Archived from the original on September 6, 2017. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  2. ^ "A covert, implied or indirect reference" (OED); Carmela Perri explored the extent to which an allusion may be overt, in "On alluding" Poetics 7 (1978), and M. H. Abrams defined allusion as "a brief reference, explicit or indirect, to a person, place or event, or to another literary work or passage". (Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms 1971, s.v. "Allusion").
  3. ^ H.W. Fowler, A Dictionary of Modern English Usage.
  4. ^ "the definition of allusion". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  5. ^ "the definition of reference". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  6. ^ "Allusion". 2015. allusion, in literature, an implied or indirect reference to a person, event, or thing or to a part of another text.
  7. ^ a b c Ben-Porot (1976) pp. 107–8 quotation:

    The literary allusion is a device for the simultaneous activation of two texts. The activation is achieved through the manipulation of a special signal: a sign (simple or complex) in a given text characterized by an additional larger "referent." This referent is always an independent text. The simultaneous activation of the two texts thus connected results in the formation of intertextual patterns whose nature cannot be predetermined. ... The "free" nature of the intertextual patterns is the feature by which it would be possible to distinguish between the literary allusion and other closely related text-linking devices, such as parody and pastiche.