Dark Conceit - The Making of Allegory Kafka, Lawrence & others - by Edwin Honig

Dark Conceit: the Making of Allegory
Allegory and its use by Melville, Hawthorne, James, Lawrence, Joyce and Kafka
by Edwin Honig

softcover in good used condition

"Dark Conceit is the first book in English to treat allegory seriously in terms of literary creation and literary criticism. Exploring the methods and ideas that go into the making of allegory, particularly in fictional form, the study moves from an estimate of the biases that have obscured the subject to a survey of the changing concept of allegory, leading into our own time. The greater part of the book concerns the typical features of allegorical fiction and considers allegory as a problem for its writers.

The center of gravity in these chapters is a group of Romantic and contemporary writers, including Melville, Hawthornes, and Kafka, who continue the allegorical tradition in literature. Such writers, along with Lawrence, James, and Joyce, are taken to be the chief counterparts to an earlier group....."