1.2 Allegory, symbol, metaphor and literary interpretation

All narratives are allegories because any reading of a narrative will produce not only what a narrative does not say but also what the writer does not mean to say. Therefore, the interpretation of the narrative will always be a misreading for it will always refer to something other than itself. De Man calls this effect of language “allegory” because it involves a gap between reference (the word or text) and referent (the thing referred to) (McQuillan 2001: 34-5).

Frye also points out that allegory is a structural element in literature and “it has to be there, and cannot be added by critical interpretation alone” (1957: 53). To Frye, allegory should be grounded on the stability of text. When a work of fiction is written or interpreted thematically, it becomes a parable or illustrative fable which is like an allegory in nature. “All formal allegories have, ipso facto, a strong thematic interest, though it does not follow, as is often said, that any thematic criticism of a work of fiction will turn it into an allegory” (1957: 34).

Jameson argues that readers of literature have a natural tendency toward allegory. In the opening chapter, “On Interpretation” of Political Unconsciousness, he proposes an allegorical approach to hermeneutics, and set up a groundwork for a theory of interpretation that depends on a narrative-based conception of allegory. He also notices the importance of culture to allegory (Jameson 1981).

Allegory[2] is critical to literary interpretation. However, allegory alone cannot explain how meaning is produced. Allegories are always allegories of metaphors and symbols. The example that De Man presents to illustrate allegory is “Dove” for “Peace”. It is worth noting that this actually is not an allegory, but a symbol instead. That is to say, to De Man and deconstructionists, symbol and allegory are used interchangeably. In Rhetoric terms, allegory cannot be separated from metaphor either. Allegory is a narrative of metaphors. Metaphors produce striking languages and symbols form the clues of an allegation.

Moby-Dick is full of metaphors and symbols. They are the keys to understanding its theme. By attaching meanings to metaphors, symbols, Moby-Dick is allegorized differently in each reader’s mind. Each of them will find their own symbols and metaphors in Moby-Dick and a clash of different meanings will be generated. In this book, “allegory runs amok, through the limitless polysemy that opens these texts to innumerable future interpretations, making them the first open work of the modern west” (Moretti 1996: 88). Different interpretations to metaphors, symbols and allegories give rise to these clashes of meanings.