Correcting a Mistake; What Is the Origin of Dream Allegory?

Abstract

Some literary glossaries define dream allegory as a narrative allegory, bring the first part of “Roman de la Rose” (13th A.D) as its most famous examples in the Middle ages, and disregard the older ones. The relationship between “Divine Comedy”, another allegory in the Middle Ages, with its older and oriental counterparts, casts doubts upon the theory that introduces “Roman de la Rose” as the prototype allegory, and brought about arguments as to the ancient origin of this literary genre. With a broader look into the structure of the known dream works older than “Roman de la Rose”, this study tries to proof that the theory of literary glossaries about the oldest example of dream allegory needs modifications, and in the second step, it is tried to show that proposing a single origin for this genre of narration does not lead to a bright conclusion; More than being pure imitation of other civilizations, dream allegory reflects man’s concept of mind regarding the after world. The old, outstanding dream allegories are among classic texts recreated in later texts; by analyzing the structure of this type of narration it will be possible to reach the structure of dream allegory as a genre.

Keywords

• dream allegory
• roman de la rose
• structure
• roman initiatique