Medusa or New Medusa - Symbol or Allegory
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Medusa or New Medusa - Symbol or Allegory - A de Manian Reading of Medusa in John Barth's "Perseid"

This article is a de Manian reading of Medusa as another textual groundwork in "Perseid", the second novella in Barth's Chimera. The de Manian privilege of allegory over symbol is the target of speculation. De Man challenges the classical, historical superiority of symbol, with its merit of infinity, and discloses the non-organic essence of allegory that emancipates any sign from the circumventions ascribed by symbol. In this regard, Barth's perspective towards Medusa is going to be elaborated in the light of allegory. Barth's treatment of Medusa in "Perseid" becomes quite allegorical rather than symbolic. Thus, showing the procedure within which allegory supersedes symbol in the figure of Medusa and New Medusa is at the crux of this part. As aforementioned, such an explication in terms of allegory is interrelated with the notion of unreadability and the improbability of eliciting a single, symbolic meaning from the text.



 
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