Imitative and productive allegory and irony in medieval literature

The concepts of allegory and irony had originallly a philosophical and theological rather than literaty meaning. To understand bow these two concepts were transferred from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, we meaning have to consider the notion of translatio studii. The most important channels through which knowledge of classical concepts was disseminated in the Middle Ages were texts of the classical rhetorical tradition, derivative compilations of early medieval authorities, oral instruction provided by the monastic schools and rhetorical manuals composed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Translation studies ensured that medieval tbeory and literature adopted classical philosophy and rhetoric, classical hermeneutics combined with Christian theology. The concept of allegory relied, at leas in medieval secular literature more strongly on the classical sources than the concept of irony, which had freed itself from ancient concepts. Medieval literature is saturated with allegories, but its definifions are usually associated with narratives, whereas medieval irony distinguishes itself as a specific mode of thought.