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Symbolism of Eyes and Foucault’s Panopticon
Most humans are drawn to the eyes and gaze. Eyes therefore feature large in art and storytelling, and sometimes symbolise surveillance. The gaze is extremely powerful. Artist Marina Abramovic knew this when she sat in an art gallery and stared at people for months. Harrison Fisher also understood when painting these girls, supposedly having fun, […]
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Symbolism of the Maze and Labyrinth
I hate being lost. I’m not the only one. Before the age of cities, suburbs and GPS, it really was dangerous to separate from your tribe. Professor Kenneth Hill has studied the psychological effects of getting lost, and was interviewed by Jim Mora on the RNZ Sunday morning radio show. Jim asks, why do people […]
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Chimneys In Art And Storytelling
The chimney is a multivalent symbol in storytelling. Chimneys can be cosy and welcoming. A column of smoke rose thin and straight from the cabin chimney. The smoke was blue where it left the red of the clay. It trailed into the blue of the April sky and was no longer blue but gray. The […]
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Egg Symbolism
Eggs are common ingredients in modern cooking. Likewise, throughout the history of folklore and fairy stories, eggs are a common ingredient in magic spells. Anyone who has kept chickens knows that poultry regularly go off the lay. If your chickens are hungry, stressed, clucky or sick you won’t get any eggs. Before modern chicken farms, […]
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Symbolism Of Ships and Boats In Literature
Ships, boats and other sea vessels are symbolically significant across literature. How are they used and what do they symbolise?
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Castles In Art and Storytelling
The castle is a feature of Gothic storytelling, and commonly makes appearances in ghost stories of all kinds. Dragons and castles also go together. As kids my friends and I played King of the Castle. There’s not much to it. We used a pile of dirt, left by some builders. One person climbs to the […]
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The Symbolism of Hats and Crowns
Hats can turn you into a human. Hats also indicate your social status and show deference.
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Symbolism of The Child
Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of merely a descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these are the marks of childhood and adolescence […] The modern […]
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Tunnel and Cave Symbolism
In symbolism, there is often a manmade and naturally occurring equivalent. The tunnel is the manmade version of a cave, the sewer a sea (littoral) cave.
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Symbolism of Containers
Vessels or containers are as important for the space they contain as well as for any material they hold. Containers tend to be associated with women. As motifs running throughout a story they can also symbolise physical or emotional containment, either self-driven or imposed upon a character from outside. When Did Humans First Use Containers? […]
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Symbolism of the Veil
A veil symbolises a separation. The separation might be: Veils are typically made from diaphanous material. At first glance the nature of the separation appears flimsy. Importantly, the separation is two-directional. ‘To believe in [a ghost] is to believe not only have the dead the power to make themselves visible after there is nothing left […]
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Symbolism of Shoes, Feet and Footprints
Shoes and footwear contain plenty of symbolic meaning. Horse shoes are different again, but I’ll include horse shoes here for comparison. Early Nancy Drew stories were high concept hooks which generally paired two disparate things which are nonetheless related in some obscure way. In The Clue of the Tapping Heels, those two things are tap […]
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Symbolism of Black, Darkness and Night
Across the globe, black has negative connotations. This is probably because night-time is black, and historically night-time is the scariest, most dangerous time for humans. Our eyes have evolved for daylight. That’s why I’m combining ‘night’ and ‘black’ when delving into symbolism. Black is not technically a colour, rather an absence of colour. Artists are […]
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Symbolism of Arrows
The arrow is both a weapon and also a sacred symbol. Divination with arrows over the years affects how we think of them and use them today. The weapon of Apollo and Diana, signifying the light of supreme power. In both Greece and pre-Columbian America, it was used to designate the sun’s rays. But, because […]
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Symbolism of the Beach in Australian Literature
There are a great number of natural landscapes in Australia apart from beaches yet the beach has somehow become iconic.
