An analogy is a comparison of two things, alike in certain aspects; particularly a method used in exposition and description by which something unfamiliar is explained by being compared to something more familiar. In argumentation and logic, it is frequently employed to justify contentions and is widely used in poetry but also in other forms of writing; a simile is an expressed analogy, a metaphor is an implied one. (A Handbook to Literature)
Origin
late Middle English (in the sense ‘appropriateness, correspondence’): from French analogie,Latin analogia ‘proportion,’ from Greek, from analogos ‘proportionate.’ (New Oxford American)
Analogy Writing Exercise
Choose a scene or section of a previously written work in which the narrator or a character needs to explain something to the reader and is currently attempting to explain in a literal, direct way. Study the intention of the explanation and the subject of the explanation.
Next, choose your favorite parable. Think Aesop. How might you rewrite this favorite parable to fit your scene’s explanatory needs? Rewrite the scene using the parable rewrite.
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Allegory is a form of extended metaphor in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative are equated with meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. (A Handbook to Literature)
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” in The Republic: Book VII
And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened:—Behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets…. Read More
Origin
late Middle English: from Old French allegorie, via Latin from Greekallēgoria, from allos ‘other’ + -agoria ‘speaking.’ (New Oxford American)
Allegory Writing Exercise
What is your biggest social concern? What sometimes keeps you up at night? Choose a scene or section of a previously written work and infuse your biggest social concern with this scene as an allegorical representation. It is important that you are using a section of writing you’ve already drafted and thoroughly considered previously because you want the section to retain its organic intentions. Now, use this rewrite to begin a new writing project.
Allegory is a form of extended metaphor in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative are equated with meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. (A Handbook to Literature)
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” in The Republic: Book VII
And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened:—Behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets…. Read More
Origin
late Middle English: from Old French allegorie, via Latin from Greekallēgoria, from allos ‘other’ + -agoria ‘speaking.’ (New Oxford American)
Allegory Writing Exercise
What is your biggest social concern? What sometimes keeps you up at night? Choose a scene or section of a previously written work and infuse your biggest social concern with this scene as an allegorical representation. It is important that you are using a section of writing you’ve already drafted and thoroughly considered previously because you want the section to retain its organic intentions. Now, use this rewrite to begin a new writing project.
Submit Your Work for Individualized Feedback
Please use Universal Manuscript Guidelines when submitting: .doc or .docx, double spacing, 10-12 pt font, Times New Roman, 1 inch margins, first page header with contact information, section breaks “***” or “#.”
“For the same reason there is nowhere to begin to trace the sheaf or the graphics of différance .* For what is put into question is precisely the quest for a rightful beginning, an absolute point of departure, a principal responsibility. The problematic of writing is opened by putting into question the value of the arkhe [arche]. What I will propose here will not be elaborated simply as a philosophical discourse, operating according to principles, postulates, axioms, or definitions, and proceeding along the discursive lines of a linear order of reasons. In the delineation of différance everything is strategic and adventurous. Strategic because no transcendent truth present outside the field of writing can govern theologically the totality of the field. Adventurous because this strategy is a not simple strategy in the sense that strategy orients tactics according to a final goal, a telos or theme of domination, a mastery and ultimate reappropriation of the development of the field. Finally, a strategy without finality, what might be called blind tactics, or empirical wandering if the value of empiricism did not itself acquire its entire meaning in opposition to philosophical responsibility. If there is a certain wandering in the tracing of différance , it no more follows the lines of philosophical-logical discourse than that of its symmetrical and integral inverse, empirical-logical discourse. The concept of play keeps itself beyond this opposition, announcing, on the eve of philosophy and beyond it, the unity of chance and necessity in calculations without end.” (Jacques Derrida, Margins of Philosophy)
Derrida’s “différance” is a deliberate departure from the word difference and an important critical foundation of postmodernism. Différance alludes to the French différer, which means simultaneously to defer and to differ. For Derrida, the concept of “meaning,” as conventionally regarded, has no true beginning or end. We are always in search of meaning, a word, phrase, concept, ideal, logos, even axiom…. We can never truly attain this meaning because meaning depends upon context and the perception by which context is being given and so meaning for one particular entity, be it a word or logos (the concept of good/bad, for instance), if it is to be fully understood, must be empirically tested against other contexts and perceptions and there is no absolute. Meaning shifts from one person to another, one person’s situation to another. It’s all in the context. There is always a deferral of meaning, a constant search. To ever find this ultimate meaning or “truth” would be antithetical to the craft and artistry of the writer because we are not, I repeat, we are not the truthsayers. We are the explorers, the devil’s advocates prodding our readers to ask the questions, embark on collective and individual searches for meaning. And one must be a passionate explorer, a master in the art of not knowing the absolute in order to lead this search. Writers who have embraced différance are our greatest explorers.
Derrida gives us the foundation for pushing past boundaries while recognizing boundaries. As writers, we study the lines and rules that govern language and story so that we can better know how and when to break these rules. We are always aware of the rules, character, plot, grammar, etc., and as we write and develop our voices and aesthetics, we search always for the moment of différance, the act of “departure and deference.”
