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The Oxford Critical Guide to Homer's Odyssey brings together internationally recognized experts to provide commentary style essays for non-specialists on each book of the Homeric epic. The introduction provides a broad overview of the historical and mythographical backgrounds to the Odyssey along with brief discussions of the major thematic and scholarly concerns of the poem. The introduction can stand alone as a guide to reading the Odyssey, while it also prepares readers for the deeper discussions of the individual books. Twenty-four scholars, selected for their expertise and earlier publications, contributed essays aimed at guiding readers through different approaches to the poem. Each essay offers a summary of the plot of an individual book followed by a discussion of interpretive issues and its relationship with the epic as a whole. The essays were written and edited with a view towards providing accessibility to epic and epic scholarship to audiences from all backgrounds. While e

Allegory has been variously defined as a literary genre, a mode of interpretation, and a symbolic dimension to all language. Although 'allegory' historically escapes easy definition, it can be broadly defined as a mode of communicating that says one thing and means another. Allegory arguably functions by means of a distinction between the surface level of communication and a further level or levels of significance beyond the surface. The term 'allegory' has historically been used both of a mode of writing or representation and of a mode of reading and interpretation. Allegorical writing is found throughout history in a wide variety of literary forms and traditions. This Handbook reflects the diversity of literature in which allegory occurs, including genres such as medieval drama, Romantic poetry, and the postcolonial novel. It addresses both key texts typically thought of as allegories (such as Piers Plowman, The Pilgrim's Progress, and Animal Farm), and allegorical motifs and tendenc