Questions tagged [allusions]
Questions about references to other works, external incidents, etc. in literature. Use this tag with the relevant author and work tags if applicable.
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Why is Happy Buddha playing the "Titanic" theme in "How to Be Chinese"?
This is some description of the restaurant Happy Buddha from the short story "How to Be Chinese". Bolding is mine.
Look around to see what it’s like in a real Chinese restaurant. The ...
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What does “Hoti’s business” refer to, in Browning’s ‘A Grammarian’s Funeral’?
Robert Browning’s ‘A Grammarian’s Funeral’, first published in Men and Women (1855), describes some of the grammarian’s achievements:
He settled Hoti’s business—let it be!—
Properly based Oun—
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Did O. Henry allude to Tom Sawyer in "The Gift of the Magi"?
Sidney Porter (O. Henry) was a contemporary of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). They died the same year; Porter attended Clemens' funeral a few months before his own death.
Was Porter referring to Twain's ...
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Allusion in Nabokov's Pnin
In chapter 3, section 6 of Nabokov's Pnin, the main character is carrying a reference work "mainly devoted to Tolstoyana" across the Waindell campus when he drops it by accident:
Pnin, on ...
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Who are these historical people alluded to by R.A. Lafferty?
In "The Six Fingers of Time", by R. A. Lafferty, available for free here on Project Gutenberg, there is a claim that having an extra finger or toe is associated with genius. The text gives ...
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In Mary Tighe's Psyche, what is the gemstone referred to by allusion?
In Mary Tighe's "Psyche", Canto 1, lines 413 - 414 (see the text), a gemstone is referred to by allusion to an episode in mythology.
To quote,
And there the gem which bears his luckless ...
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What is the meaning of the reference to a young contemporary author?
At the beginning of Jorge Amado's novel The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray (A Morte e a Morte de Quincas Berro d'Água, 1959), the narrator seems to allude to something a young contemporary author ...
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Is there anything deeper about the comparisons between Queenie and the Red Queen in "Code Name Verity"?
There's a sequence in Code Name Verity where one of the main characters, called "Queenie" here, is compared to the Red Queen. The time period is WWII. A future version of Queenie is the one &...
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In "Sordello", how do we know the rejected spirit is Shelley?
In book I of Sordello (1840) by Robert Browning, the speaker addresses a group of spirits,
Summoned together from the world’s four ends,
Dropped down from heaven or cast up from hell,
To hear the ...
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Is this Atlas Shrugged quote a deliberate Biblical reference?
Matthew 25:21 (NIV):
His master replied, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's ...
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Is there any significance in the cry "Euan, euan, eu-oi-oi-oi" in Prince Caspian?
In Prince Caspian, there's a passage where Aslan apparently uses his power to summon up the spirit of Old Narnia, leading to the eventual defeat of the Telmarines with very little bloodshed. A wild ...
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Is Keats' swan with "neck of arched snow" an allusion to Milton's "swan with arched neck"?
I discovered something quite interesting today in John Milton's Paradise Lost. Here is Milton (this is the Archangel Raphael relating to Adam and Eve the creation of the world):
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Do the opening lines of Frost’s poem “After Apple-Picking” contain a biblical reference?
Robert Frost's poem ‘After Apple-Picking’, collected in North of Boston (1914), is a well-known poem on man’s encounter with the natural world, probing the dilemma of his existence.
The first two ...
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Does Muriel Barbery's title "The Elegance of The Hedgehog" reflect knowledge of Archilochus' aphorism?
Does Muriel Barbery's title The Elegance of The Hedgehog reflect knowledge of Archilochus' aphorism? Is there information or proof that Barbery had Archilocus' aphorism in mind?
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How do we know that Shelley's "Adonais" refers to Byron and Moore?
In every site I've seen that analyzes Shelley's Adonais, they all agree that in the following stanza the "Pilgrim of Eternity" refers to Byron. Here is one example:
From stanza 30 to 35, ...
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