Als literarisches Verfahren gehört die Allegorie zum indirekten Sprechen, häufig als Personifikation, Figuration oder Versinnbildung abstrakter Begriffe. In der allegorischen Darstellung sind Bild und Schrift, Ausdruck und Ausgedrücktes, Form und Inhalt, Bedeutung und Bedeutendes unauflöslich miteinander verstrickt. Eine eindeutige Definition, z.B. als Gegenstück zum Symbol, ist daher nicht möglich: die antike Rhetorik, die theologische Exegese heiliger Schriften im Mittelalter, das Barock, die Romantik und der Klassizismus prägten eigene Verständnisse allegorischer Texte und ihrer Deutungen (Allegorese). Spätestens seit Beginn der Moderne ist Allegorie aber nicht nur der Name einer literarischen, rhetorischen oder kunstwissenschaftlichen Stilfigur, sondern auch Ausdruck und kritische Darstellung gesellschaftlicher Verhältnisse. Walter Benjamin schrieb in seinen Beobachtungen über das Zeitalter des Hochkapitalismus, die Allegorie sei „die Armatur der Moderne“ (1939). Mehr noch, Allegorie betrifft nicht nur Lesarten der Moderne, ihre Kunstwerke, Texte und Träume, sondern die elementare Form des kapitalistischen Gesellschaftsverhältnisses: die Ware ist, mit Marx gegengelesen, selbst allegorisch strukturiert. Mit der Fährte von Benjamin und Marx folgt das Seminar einer kultur-, medien- und gesellschaftskritischen Bedeutungsschicht der Allegorie, die Fredric Jameson seit den 1970er Jahren mit dem vermeintlichen Gegenbegriff zur Entschlüsselung moderner Gesellschaftsverhältnisse kombiniert hat – der Struktur. Die Allegorie hat demnach selbst eine Struktur, in der sich die Dialektik von Bedeutung und Position, Gebrauch und Wert, Inhalt und Form ins Werk setzt. Die Allegorie fragt und verrätselt nicht bloß die Bedeutung eines Werks, eines Texts oder eines sprachlich vermittelten Verhältnisses, sondern erlaubt es, die Struktur vielfältiger Bedeutungen aufzudecken und dadurch die Bedeutung des Wortes „Bedeutung” selbst zu verändern. Als eingreifendes Instrument und diagnostisches Werkzeug ist sie Bestandteil einer kritischen Medienphilosophie geworden.
As a literary device, allegory is a form of indirect speech, often used as a personification, figuration, or emblematizing of abstract concepts. In allegorical presentation, image and writing, expression and what is expressed, form and content, meaning and signification are inextricably intertwined. A clear definition, e.g., as the counterpart to symbol, is therefore not possible: ancient rhetoric, theological exegesis of sacred writings in the Middle Ages, the Baroque, Romanticism, and Classicism each shaped their own understanding of allegorical texts and their interpretations (allegoresis). Since the beginning of modernity at the latest, however, allegory has not only been the name of a literary, rhetorical, or art-historical stylistic device, but also an expression and critical presentation of social relations. In his observations on the age of high capitalism, Walter Benjamin wrote that allegory was “the armature of modernity” (1939). Moreover, allegory concerns not only interpretations of modernity, its artworks, texts and dreams, but also the elementary form of capitalist social relations: to paraphrase Marx, commodities themselves are structured allegorically. Following in the footsteps of Benjamin and Marx, the seminar traces a layer of meaning in allegory that is critical of culture, media, and society, which Fredric Jameson has combined since the 1970s with the supposed antonym for deciphering modern social relations—structure. Allegory itself therefore has a structure in which the dialectic of meaning and position, use and value, content and form takes shape. Allegory not only questions and obscures the meaning of a work, a text, or a linguistically mediated relationship, but also allows the structure of diverse meanings to be uncovered, thereby changing the meaning of the word “meaning” itself. As an intervening instrument and diagnostic tool, it has become part of critical media philosophy.
As a literary device, allegory is a form of indirect speech, often used as a personification, figuration, or emblematizing of abstract concepts. In allegorical presentation, image and writing, expression and what is expressed, form and content, meaning and signification are inextricably intertwined. A clear definition, e.g., as the counterpart to symbol, is therefore not possible: ancient rhetoric, theological exegesis of sacred writings in the Middle Ages, the Baroque, Romanticism, and Classicism each shaped their own understanding of allegorical texts and their interpretations (allegoresis). Since the beginning of modernity at the latest, however, allegory has not only been the name of a literary, rhetorical, or art-historical stylistic device, but also an expression and critical presentation of social relations. In his observations on the age of high capitalism, Walter Benjamin wrote that allegory was “the armature of modernity” (1939). Moreover, allegory concerns not only interpretations of modernity, its artworks, texts and dreams, but also the elementary form of capitalist social relations: to paraphrase Marx, commodities themselves are structured allegorically. Following in the footsteps of Benjamin and Marx, the seminar traces a layer of meaning in allegory that is critical of culture, media, and society, which Fredric Jameson has combined since the 1970s with the supposed antonym for deciphering modern social relations—structure. Allegory itself therefore has a structure in which the dialectic of meaning and position, use and value, content and form takes shape. Allegory not only questions and obscures the meaning of a work, a text, or a linguistically mediated relationship, but also allows the structure of diverse meanings to be uncovered, thereby changing the meaning of the word “meaning” itself. As an intervening instrument and diagnostic tool, it has become part of critical media philosophy.