Allusion as a Literary Technique

[McKenna]

I really don't like in-jokes and tricks and authorly cleverness and smugness. I'll stop reading a story when I get the feeling that the author is too pleased with his or her own cleverness, whether it's due to their vocabulary or style or allusions. It's like constantly getting an elbow in the ribs while you're reading.

Personally, I stay away from any allusions in my stories. I find it to be a kind of self-congratulatory, writerly masturbation and generally unattractive. When people don't get the allusions it's a waste of time, and when they do get it, all you've managed to do is show how erudite and clever you are, which usually does little to improve the quality of a story It serves to intrude the author into his or her story, something I try very hard to avoid.

I'm especially careful not to allude to music, which many people do in an attempt to set a specific mood. Because music is so effective in communicating a mood, it's always tempting to do this, and it almost always fails. Unless you pick a piece that everyone knows, something like "Happy Birthday To You", chances are people won't know the piece and immediately feel excluded.

I think allusions are exclusionary too. Unless they're taken from something as well known as the bible, they're just authorly posturing. They have nothing to do with fiction. Too precious for me.

---dr.M.

I think if writing allusions is a natural part of your style, you shouldn't compromise your voice just to reach a wider audience; it's like whoring yourself to the public. (Depending on your personality and your ultimate goal, whoring yourself to the public might be a good thing, but in the context I am using it, it's a bad thing, IMO.)

I have started to read texts and put them down not so much because the content wasn't good, but because the tone or the author's "voice" that came through the text just didn't appeal to me. So, I can understand your not reading an author who is "too pleased with his or her own cleverness." Excessive use of allusion might perpetuate this tone of "smugness" that you mentioned.

However, I think I could make an argument for using an allusion IF the item to which your are alluding is so well-known to a vast majority of your audience that using it would not exclude them. For instance, if I said "He strode through the amber waves of grain..." you might recognize a line from America the Beautiful. However if you weren't American, chances are it wouldn't mean much to you at all. Maybe it would be better to use a Christmas carol, "He dashed through the snow, laughing all the way at his own clever use of allusion." But then you stand the risk of alienating non-Christians, or non-English speakers. And so it goes...

Pffft, I don't know Doc, I've seen allusions worked effectively (Hemingway, for instance,) but it doesn't stop me from feeling like an idiot if I just don't get the allusion. Six one way, half dozen the other.

 

[McKenna]

Mab., keep your opinion of course, but why so judgemental (exclusionary, indeed)? Great literature is full of allusions and the richer for it (even the not so great, imo: Hemingway, Kerouac, Ginsberg). I've never seen it as in-jokes, tricks or smugness unless done poorly. Or were you addressing only pop fiction and smut?

Perdita

Hee hee! I referenced Hemingway, too. Does this mean I'm "in?!"

 

[Guest]

Hee hee! I referenced Hemingway, too. Does this mean I'm "in?!"

Ouch!

Ok, Mab. got me going, but I really want to give allusion its due. I googled for more examples than might have come to mind on my own, and found some interesting insights too. I’ll put the links at the end of this for those who are interested. - Perdita

One definition included this: “Allusions are often used to summarize broad, complex ideas or emotions in one quick, powerful image … Thus, allusions serve an important function in writing in that they allow the reader to understand a difficult concept by relating to an already familiar story.” (I’d not mentioned that allusions are always metaphorical. Who can deny a metaphor? Simple and common ones are calling a man a “Romeo” or an incident a “Trojan horse” or a “Catch 22”.)

Another: “Authors often use allusion to establish a tone, create an implied association, contrast two objects or people, make an unusual juxtaposition of references, or bring the reader into a world of experience outside the limitations of the story itself.”

Further: “Allusions imply reading and cultural experiences shared by the writer and reader, functioning as a kind of shorthand whereby the recalling of something outside the work supplies an emotional or intellectual context, such as a poem about current racial struggles calling up the memory of Abraham Lincoln.” and “The opening sentence of Cat's Cradle, 'Call me Jonah', alludes to both an Old Testament prophet and the opening line of Melville's Moby Dick.

“Agatha Christie's A Pocket Full of Rye, closely follows the nursery rhyme ‘Sing a Song of Sixpence’ encouraging the reader to discover the villain by giving hints and clues through her sequential, focused allusions. Another example of Agatha Christie's allusion to nursery rhymes would be the short story entitled Three Blind Mice (with the obvious allusion to the nursery rhyme, ‘Three Blind Mice’). Agatha Christie uses allusions to the Bible, Christian theology, nursery rhymes, famous poetry, Shakespeare, famous pieces of music, historical personages/events, etc.

O. Henry tends to make common references to other writers of his day and those that came before him. Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods On A Snowy Evening may have a subtle allusion to Dante's Inferno (first book of Divine Comedy). Vincent Benet's By the Waters of Babylon alludes to Psalm 137.”

“T.S. Eliot, in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" alludes (refers) to the biblical figure John the Baptist in the line Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter, . . . In the New Testament, John the Baptist's head was presented to King Herod on a platter.”

Here are some old and contemporary figures commonly used as allusions:

“Hamlet was a character from Shakespeare who had a difficulty making a decision.
Falstaff was another of Shakespeare's characters who was a large jovial man with a keen wit.
The Three Stooges were a comedy team of not-too-bright buffoons.
Benedict Arnold was an American traitor.
The 'cowardly lion' from the Wizard of Oz was a coward.
Judas betrayed Jesus.
Mother Teresa was a nun who selflessly devoted her life to caring for the poor and sick.
Don Quixote was a fictional hero; a dreamer who was always going on quests to try to accomplish impossible tasks."

citation one two three

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I don’t have any problem with allusions to Shakespeare or nursery rhymes or other cultural artifacts. Those are things that have become part of our language, and everyone should know what it means to go mad like Lear or call a girl a Lolita, or why the dish ran away with the spoon..

But there’s a kind of fiction that’s full of inside jokes and allusions and obscure references to literary trivia that seems to be written mostly by writers working in academia, and written mostly for other writers and members of the literary community, and that’s what I was complaining about. Saul Bellow falls into this a lot, and Phillip Roth, and Updike and Barth, and all these other guys who write books about academic writers trying to write books. They substitute erudition for emotion and cleverness for insight, and I hate that kind of stuff. Books like those turn people off to literature because it makes it seem like you need a graduate degree in English to get what they’re saying. It’s snobbish and effete and too clever by half.

There are a lot of clever books and not all of them are bad, and there are a lot of people who approach literature as a puzzle meant to be deciphered and ‘solved’: symbols interpreted and allusions nailed down, like it’s some sort of rebus. There’s a place for that, but that’s a pretty superficial approach to literature when you get right down to it. That’s junior college stuff.

Personally, I’ll take emotion over cleverness any day, and I especially hate to feel that I’m being ‘practiced upon’, or yentsed around by an author who’s trying to show off how educated they are or how obscure they can be at my expence. It just gets my back up, and I usually stop reading.

I guess it comes down to whether you read with your head or your heart, and I tend to be a heart-reader.

---dr.M.

 

[Belegon]

hmmm, got me curious about my own writing...

I do find a little bit of it. Mostly it comes when I am trying to set an image in a reader's mind more strongly...

Jason walked towards the table with a fresh longneck held low in his right hand as if this were Tombstone and someone were about to call “draw”. I swore softly to kill him and followed.

So I don't actually talk about his gunfighter style swagger or outrightly describe it, but I hope that the reference does it. Is the Gunfight at the OK Corral enough of a cultural icon for the Brits on Lit?

 

[Belegon]

Ok, I found something more obscure...how many people make the connection with the eyebrow, "Bluto" and a fraternity here...

She was watching me and as our eyes met I raised my left eyebrow and gave the smirk that had led to my frat brothers nicknaming me “Bluto”. Kris just nodded and silently mouthed the word “please”.

I consider the little smirk that Belushi had perfected to be the perfect fit here. But it is definitely easy to miss. Or not get.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the clarifying post, Mab., I mistook you and thought you were dismissing the use of allusion all together. I agree with you completely about 'academic' literature; for the most part it breeds itself and the results are as foul as incest. Critical theory does have its place but in the "business" of higher education it's become mostly political.


Perdita

 

[doormouse]

I can't write without allusions.

Sometimes my allusions are inadvertent.

Sometimes I think 'Why did I bother?' when the feedback shows that the allusions have been ignored or missed.

Seriously no offence to anyone here, but I find them boring.

They're great in short story quotes, poetry, etc, but in a story that's trying to bear meaning, they're boring.

I'd rather read a story using basic, clear vocabulary than one's that is presented in poetic form (if you can classify allusions as poetic).

*yawn* Too many words used to paint a picture, fewer, and clearer words could have described just as well.

 

[oggbashan]

I agree with Dr.M's qualified criticism of over academic use of allusion. Spenser's Faerie Queen is an example I quoted. A modern reader who was educated in an average school during the 1990s is likely to find that almost impenetrable.

However I am not sure that those among us who say we don't use allusion are aware that they refer to a common culture in much that they write.

We have a common culture on the AH. We refer to 'The Question', sheep, Perdita's love of Venice, my long-windedness, The Earl's rugby etc. This is not always helpful to newbies who do not have the same common culture but is a trait of all groups in society - a shorthand way of expressing ourselves, a jargon, a shared experience.

Writing on Literotica (or anywhere that has a wide geographical spread of audience) is made more difficult by the paucity of shared conventions. If I were to read a story written around a baseball game I would struggle to follow the metaphors. The same would apply to an Australian Rules game, an American Football game or the most impenetrable of all outside the former British Empire: Cricket. 'He bowled a maiden over." has a specific meaning.

How far is there a common culture even in a country? We discuss Yorkshire expressions and culture here yet there are many in the UK who would not follow what a broad Yorkshireman is saying. The Welsh have different traditions and subsets of those. "From the valleys" is specific to certain coal-mining areas of South Wales. There are valleys all over Wales but that expression is limited and produces a definite image. An allusion to "the valleys" means something in the UK but elsewhere?

I find some allusions in many stories written by authors resident in the US difficult to follow. I know who Benedict Arnold was, of the 'noble experiment' of Prohibition, Tammany Hall, some of the wording of the Declaration of Independence, but I do not share everything that an educated US citizen would assume is common knowledge. We have even debated here the lack of 'common knowledge' among university students.

Unless we write at a very basic level of English I think we all tend to use allusion. Unless that allusion is based on a shared knowledge our writing fails to convey our meaning. What is the point of me writing a parody of Swift's Gulliver's Travels if the reader has never even heard of Gulliver?

Og

 

[Black Tulip]

I feel like I have just attended an extensive course in English writing. Not sure I grasped the meaning of allusion completely though. But it was fascinating to read.

Now I am wondering if I use them, without knowing what they are really.
Could the quote in my sig be called an allusion?

Since my cultural background is non-English I miss a lot of references and sometimes that's irritating. Mostly when it's a case of showing off, like dr. M. said. At other times, I let it pass or I try to fill the gap. But that is only when I know I am missing a clue.

I think I don't use allusions at all. No to literature I'm sure, because that would be too specific. None of you would know what I was referring to.

 

[oggbashan]

Now I am wondering if I use them, without knowing what they are really.
Could the quote in my sig be called an allusion?

Your Lit name is an allusion to Dumas' novel.

I know it means something rare, beautiful and much sought after - so it is appropriate.

Og

 

[McKenna]

Thanks for the clarifying post, Mab., I mistook you and thought you were dismissing the use of allusion all together. I agree with you completely about 'academic' literature; for the most part it breeds itself and the results are as foul as incest. Critical theory does have its place but in the "business" of higher education it's become mostly political.

Well-said Perdita. I, too, mistook Dr. M. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[Black Tulip]

Your Lit name is an allusion to Dumas' novel.

I know it means something rare, beautiful and much sought after - so it is appropriate.

Og

Thank you, Og. That is a very nice compliment.

 

[Guest]

Could the quote in my sig be called an allusion?

Yes, and a very clever one that most people would recognize.

Bel, yours are good examples too, though I thought of Popeye's Bluto, not Belushi.

It seems this subject has brought up the question of writing for an audience. Of course people from non-English backgrounds will miss many allusions (whether literary or cultural) in English literature, but as Ogg has mentioned, there's a smaller audience for cricket refs. The same goes for any any language in which the reader is not familiar. It's common in translations to replace an allusion with one that fits the new language.

As I said earlier, I like using allusions, but they must fit well and easily. I also try to make them fit so that even if a reader does not recognize them the context helps them work, even if only evocatively.

We write as we need and like, but I do believe the more one is familiar with rhetoric (tools and techniques of the language), the richer the writing will be. Story is essential but it's not why I write, so I choose to lose readers but am very satisfied with those I get.

Perdita

 

[Guest]

For laughs here is an artist's (Kayti Didriksen) allusion to Manet's famous painting Olympia. P.

edited to add Manet's Olymjpia