Allegory. The Theory of a Symbolic Mode

List of Illustrations ix A Personal Foreword, Harold Bloom xiii Acknowledgments xvii Introduction 1 1. The Daemonic Agent 24 2. The Cosmic Image 69 3. Symbolic Action: Progress and Battle 147 4. Allegorical Causation: Magic and Ritual Forms 181 5. Thematic Effects: Ambivalence, the Sublime, and the Picturesque 221 6. Psychoanalytic Analogues: Obsession and Compulsion 281 7. Value and Intention: The Limits of Allegory 306 Afterword 362 Afterword to the 2012 Edition 370 Illustrations 413 Bibliography 441 Index 463