Portrait of Lord Melvyn Bragg, host of In Our Time

Allegory

As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory throughout history in all forms of art to illustrate or convey complex ideas and concepts in ways that are comprehensible or striking to its viewers, readers, or listeners.

4 episodes

Episodes in this category also belong to the following categories:

  1. Animal Farm

    4 Extra Debut. Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Orwell's Animal Farm, which he struggled to publish in WW2 as the USSR was an ally. From 2016.

    29 September 2016

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    Featuring: Steven Connor, Mary Vincent, Robert Colls

     
  2. Moby Dick

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Moby-Dick (1851) by Herman Melville, the story of Ahab and the white whale, the most popular of around 1,000 ideas that listeners submitted.

    7 December 2017

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    Featuring: Bridget Bennett, Katie McGettigan, Graham Thompson

     
  3. Piers Plowman

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Langland's exploration of what it means to live a good life, written when the Black Death had overturned many of the old certainties.

    29 October 2020

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    Featuring: Laura Ashe, Lawrence Warner, Alastair Bennett

     
  4. Plato's Atlantis

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the legend of the lost island of Atlantis, first told by Plato and taken literally by Renaissance Europeans as they began to explore the oceans.

    22 September 2022

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    Featuring: Edith Hall, Christopher Gill, Angie Hobbs