Allusions
"The test for allusion is that it is a phenomenum that some reader or readers may fail to observe" [12, p.39] Allusions are far from being the sole preserve of literature. Cinema, painting and music frequently contain quotations from other works. Early still-lifes in particular depended on a rich vocabulary of symbols which many admirers are unaware of today. But how important for the contemporary reader is the awareness of a poem's allusions? And how has this importance changed? The Mechanics of Allusion According to Ben-Porot [5, p.109] the process of a reader's actualisation of an allusion involves recognition of marker identification of evoked text modification of the initial local interpretation of passage activation of evoked text Full actualisation may be frustrated at each stage - recognition of marker If an allusion is disguised or unobtrusive (it doesn't appear in quotes, it has a tempting non-allusive interpretation, etc) the reader may not realise...