Political and Social Features of the Allegorical Short Story Little Black

Abstract

Abstract

Allegory is a device in which characters or events represent or symbolize ideas and concepts. Allegory has been used widely throughout the history of literature, and in all forms of artwork. A reason for this is that allegory has an immense power of illustrating complex ideas and concepts in a digestible, concrete way. Therefore, in allegory a message is communicated by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation. One of the contemporary Iranian authors who wrote stories benefited allegorical structure was Samad Behrangi. Although his stories seemingly suit for children, they are in fact deep in thematic meaning in a sense that makes them interesting for adults. As a writer sensitive to social, political and cultural situations, he used animals as the characters of some stories. One of the most eminent short stories written by him is Little Black Fish. This article attempted to demonstrate that this short story was a social and political allegory by focusing on its potential allegorical features.

Keywords: Allegory, Extended metaphor, implied layer, Littlle Black Fish, Sammad Behrangi, Surface layer.