Traces the development of allegory in the European and American tradition from antiquity to the modern era.

Introduction Rita Copeland and Peter T. Struck; Part I. Ancient Foundations: 1. Early Greek allegory Dirk Obbink; 2. Hellenistic allegory and early imperial rhetoric Glenn W. Most; 3. Origen as theorist of allegory: Alexandrian contexts Daniel Boyarin; Part II. Philosophy, Theology, and Poetry 200 to 1200: 4. Allegory and ascent in Neoplatonism Peter T. Struck; 5. Allegory in Christian late antiquity Denys Turner; 6. Allegory in Islamic literatures Peter Heath; 7. Twelfth-century allegory: philosophy and imagination Jon Whitman; Part III. Literary Allegory: Philosophy and Figuration: 8. Allegory in the Roman de la Rose Kevin Brownlee; 9. Dante and allegory Albert R. Ascoli; 10. Medieval secular allegory: French and English Stephanie Gibbs Kamath and Rita Copeland; 11. Medieval religious allegory: French and English Nicolette Zeeman; 12. Renaissance allegory from Petrarch to Spenser Michael Murrin; 13. Protestant allegory Brian Cummings; 14. Allegorical drama Blair Hoxby; Part IV. The Fall and Rise of Allegory: 15. Romanticism's errant allegory Theresa M. Kelley; 16. American allegory Deborah L. Madsen; 17. Walter Benjamin's concept of allegory Howard Cagill; 18. Hermeneutics, deconstruction, allegory Steven Mailloux; 19. Allegory happens: allegory and the arts post-1960 Lynette Hunter.