Title

EDMUND SPENSER’S “THE FAERIE QUEEN” AS “CONTINUED ALLEGORY”: FROM EMBLEMATIC AND CONCEITED WRITING TO SYMBOLICAL

Author(s)

Elena V. Haltrin-Khalturina

Information about the author(s)

Elena V. Haltrin-Khalturina, DSc in Philology, PhD in English (USA), Leading Research Fellow, A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, Moscow, 121069 Russia. E-mail: elenahaltrin@yandex.ru

Received

June 28, 2016

Published

25 Dec 2016

Issue

Vol. 1, no 3–4

Department

World Literature

Pages

92-111

DOI

DOI: 10.22455/2500-4247-2016-1-3-4-92-111

UDK

УДК 821.111, 82-1/-9 ББК 83.3(4 Англ.)

BBK

ББК 83.3(4 Англ.)

Abstract

The article aims to direct attention of the Russian readers to the rich- ness of Spenser’s allegorical palette in his poem “The Faerie Queene.” The words “allegory” and “symbol” are employed here in their modern sense, with reference to the definitions discussed by scholars of literature and philosophy. In particular, the article draws on A. F. Losev’s and S. S. Averintsev’s studies of symbol and the neighboring semantic-and-structural categories (allegory, personification, artistic image, metaphor, and myth). Some of these terms were divorced from one another during the Romantic period. For Spenser, the borderline between allegory and sym- bol seems to be quite fuzzy: both of them convey hidden meaning. The discussion of passages from “The Faerie Queene” speaks for Spenser’s departure from the pure al- legory. His “continued allegory” embraces emblems, extended metaphors (conceits), mythical and symbolic figures.

Keywords

allegory, personification, emblems, conceit, myth, symbol, Redcross knight, Una, Satyrane, Archimago.

Works cited

1 Averintsev S. S. Simvol. Kratkaya literaturnaya entsiklopediya [Symbol. A Brief

Literary Encyclopedia], Gen. ed. A. A. Surkov. Moscow, Sovetskaya entsiklopediya Publ.,

1962–1978. 1971. Vol. 6, pp. 826–831. (In Russ.)

2 Losev A. F. Problema simvola i realisticheskoe iskusstvo [The Problem of Symbol and

Realistic Art]. Moscow, Iskusstvo Publ., 1976. 367 p. (In Russ.)

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