The Oxford Dictionary Of Allusions _VERIFIED_
This reference work explains the meanings of the allusions in use in modern English, from Abaddon to Zorro, Tartarus to Tarzan, and Rubens to Rambo. Quotations from a range of authors and sources are included at most entries to illustrate usageanywhere from Thomas Hardy to Ben Elton, Charles Dickens to Bridget Jones's Diary. This second edition includes completely up-to-date allusionsfrom Gollum to Kofi Annanand a handy A-Z order has been adopted for extra ease of reference and usability.
The Oxford Dictionary of Allusions
This absorbing and accessible A-Z explains the meanings of allusions in modern English. Fascinating to browse through, the book is based on an extensive reading programme that has identified the most commonly-used allusions. For the third edition all entries have been reviewed, revised, and thoroughly updated to ensure the consistency of coverage of allusions and references. New to this edition is the inclusion within each entry of a short summary definition for the allusion or reference, ideal for quick reference, and at least one illustrative citation from a wide range of source materials in almost every entry.
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Are you an Athena when it comes to literary allusions, or are they your kryptonite? Either way, the Oxford Dictionary of Reference and Allusion can be your Henry Higgins, providing fascinating information on the literary and pop culture references that make reading and entertainment so rich. Take this quiz, Zorro, and leave your calling card.
Andrew Delahunty and Sheila Dignen are freelance lexicographers who have extensive experience compiling dictionaries. From classical mythology to modern movies and TV shows, the revised and updated Oxford Dictionary of Reference and Allusion, third edition explains the meanings of more than 2,000 allusions in use in modern English, from Abaddon to Zorro, Tartarus to Tarzan, and Rambo to Rubens.
Allusions are a colorful extension to the English language, drawing on our collective knowledge of literature, mythology, and the Bible to give us a literary shorthand for describing people, places, and events. A cunning crook is an Artful Dodger, a daydreamer is like Billy Liar, a powerful woman is a modern-day Amazon - we can suffer like Sisyphus, fail like Canute, or linger like the smile of the Cheshire Cat. This absorbing and accessible A-Z explains the meanings of allusions in modern English, from Adonis to Zorro, Tartarus to Tarzan, and Rubens to Rambo. Fascinating to browse, the book is based on an extensive reading program that has identified the most commonly-used allusions. For the third edition all entries have been reviewed, revised, and updated to ensure the consistency of coverage of allusions and references, and to make sure all entries have at least one illustrative citation from an even wider range of source materials: from Aldous Huxley to Philip Roth, and Emily Bronte. The new edition also includes a useful bibliography to help readers explore the world of references and allusions further. The Oxford Dictionary of Reference and Allusion is both a useful and user-friendly reference work for students of English Literature and Language, as well as for non-native English speakers who need explanations of unusual references, and an absorbing browseable volume for all lovers of literature and culture in general.
Allusions form a colourful extension to the English language, drawing on our collective knowledge of literature, mythology, and the Bible to give us a literary shorthand for describing people, places, and events. So a miser is a Scrooge, a strong man is a Samson or a Hercules, a beautiful woman is a Venus or a modern-day Helen of Troy - we can suffer like Sisyphus, fail like Canute, or linger like the smile of the Cheshire Cat.This absorbing reference work explains the meanings of allusions in modern English, from Abaddon to Zorro, Tartarus to Tarzan, and Rubens to Rambo. Fascinating to browse through, the book is based on an extensive reading programme that has identified the most commonly-used allusions. Quotations are included in most entries to illustrate usage, from a range of authors and sources, from Thomas Hardy to Ben Elton, Charles Dickens to Bridget Jones's Diary.For this new second edition the most up-to-date allusions from Gollum to Kofi Annan have been added, and a handy A-Z order has been adopted for extra ease of reference.
In the most traditional sense, allusion is a literary term, though the word has also come to encompass indirect references to any source, including allusions in film or the visual arts.[8] In literature, allusions are used to link concepts that the reader already has knowledge of, with concepts discussed in the story. In the field of film criticism, a film-maker's intentionally unspoken visual reference to another film is also called an homage. It may even be sensed that real events have allusive overtones, when a previous event is inescapably recalled by a current one. "Allusion is bound up with a vital and perennial topic in literary theory, the place of authorial intention in interpretation", William Irwin observed, in asking "What is an allusion?"[9]
In Homer, brief allusions could be made to mythic themes of generations previous to the main narrative because they were already familiar to the epic's hearers: one example is the theme of the Calydonian boarhunt. In Hellenistic Alexandria, literary culture and a fixed literary canon known to readers and hearers made a densely allusive poetry effective; the poems of Callimachus offer the best-known examples.
The most densely allusive work in modern English may be Finnegans Wake by James Joyce. Joseph Campbell and Henry Morton Robinson wrote A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake (1944) that unlocked some of Joyce's most obscure allusions.
References and allusions to Scott's own poems are included, but those to preceding novels in the Waverley series are not. Inevitably there are many other compromises: for example, works introduced to illustrate a general point, or authors mentioned incidentally in the narrative, or editorial suggestions involving slight echoes or general comparisons are usually omitted.
Errors and acknowledgments: Anyone discovering errors is asked to send a note to one of the directors of the Walter Scott Research Centre, a.lumsden@abdn.ac.uk or david.hewitt@abdn.ac.uk. The first acknowledgement is made to Regula Hohl Trillini of the University of Basel for three allusions to Hamlet included in the HyperHamlet database.
The art of the object reached unparalleled heights in the medieval Islamic world, yet the intellectual dimensions of ceramics, metalwares, and other plastic arts in this milieu have not always been acknowledged. Arts of Allusion reveals the object as a crucial site where pre-modern craftsmen of the eastern Mediterranean and Persianate realms engaged in fertile dialogue with poetry, literature, painting, and, perhaps most strikingly, architecture. Lanterns fashioned after miniature shrines, incense burners in the form of domed monuments, earthenware jars articulated with arches and windows, inkwells that allude to tents: through close studies of objects from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries, this book reveals that allusions to architecture abound across media in the portable arts of the medieval Islamic world. Arts of Allusion draws upon a broad range of material evidence as well as medieval texts to locate its subjects in a cultural landscape where the material, visual, and verbal realms were intertwined. Moving far beyond the initial identification of architectural types with their miniature counterparts in the plastic arts, Margaret Graves develops a series of new frameworks for exploring the intelligent art of the allusive object. These address materiality, representation, and perception, and examine contemporary literary and poetic paradigms of metaphor, description, and indirect reference as tools for approaching the plastic arts. Arguing for the role of the intellect in the applied arts and for the communicative potential of ornament, Arts of Allusion asserts the reinstatement of craftsmanship into Islamic intellectual history. 041b061a72