Previous
Allegory
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Part 1
Explanation and Analysis—Barthes:
At several points in the novel, Little Dog alludes to the work of French philosopher Roland Barthes. The two following excerpt is from Part 1:
I reread Roland Barthes’s Mourning Diary yesterday, the book he wrote each day for a year after his mother’s death. I have known the body of my mother, he writes, sick and then dying. And that’s where I stopped. Where I decided to write to you. You who are still alive.
Related Themes:
Part 3
Explanation and Analysis—Barthes:
At several points in the novel, Little Dog alludes to the work of French philosopher Roland Barthes. The two following excerpt is from Part 1:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I reread Roland Barthes’s Mourning Diary yesterday, the book he wrote each day for a year after his mother’s death. I have known the body of my mother, he writes, sick and then dying. And that’s where I stopped. Where I decided to write to you. You who are still alive.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Duchamp:
In the following instance of allegory and allusion from Part 3, Little Dog recalls the French artist Marcel Duchamp's controversial inverted urinal sculpture, entitled "Fountain":
Unlock with LitCharts A+I’m thinking now of Duchamp, his infamous “sculpture.” How by turning a urinal, an object of stable and permanent utility, upside down, he radicalized its reception. By further naming it Fountain, he divested the object of its intended identity, rendering it with an unrecognizable new form. I hate how he proved that the entire existence of a thing could be changed simply by flipping it over [...].
Mostly, I hate him because he was right. Because that’s what was happening to Lan. The cancer had refigured not only her features, but the trajectory of her being.
Related Themes:
