Allusion
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]
Not to be confused with Illusion.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."
Allusion as cultural bond[edit]
The origin of allusion is from the Latin noun allusionem "a playing with, a reference to", from alludere "to play, jest, make fun of", a compound of ad "to" + ludere "to play".[10] Recognizing the point of allusion's condensed riddle also reinforces cultural solidarity between the maker of the allusion and the hearer: their shared familiarity with allusion bonds them. Ted Cohen finds such a "cultivation of intimacy" to be an essential element of many jokes.[11] Some aspect of the referent must be invoked and identified for the tacit association to be made; the allusion is indirect in part because "it depends on something more than mere substitution of a referent".[12]
The allusion depends as well on the author's intent; a reader may search out parallels to a figure of speech or a passage, of which the author was unaware, and offer them as unconscious allusions—coincidences that a critic might not find illuminating. Addressing such issues is an aspect of hermeneutics.
William Irwin remarks that allusion moves in only one direction: "If A alludes to B, then B does not allude to A. The Bible does not allude to Shakespeare, though Shakespeare may allude to the Bible." Irwin appends a note: "Only a divine author, outside of time, would seem capable of alluding to a later text."[13] This is the basis for Christian readings of Old Testament prophecy, which asserts that passages are to be read as allusions to future events due to Jesus's revelation in Luke 24:25–27.
Allusion differs from the similar term intertextuality in that it is an intentional effort on the author's part.[8] The success of an allusion depends in part on at least some of its audience "getting" it. Allusions may be made increasingly obscure, until at last they are understood by the author alone, who thereby retreats into a private language (e.g. "Ulalume", by Edgar Allan Poe).