Editing Allusion (section)

==Scope of the term==
[[File:NAMA Tablette 1287.jpg|thumb|right|Backside of a clay tablet from [[Pylos]] bearing the motif of the [[Labyrinth]], an allusion to the mythological fight of [[Theseus#The myth of Theseus and the Minotaur|Theseus and the Minotaur]]]]

In the most traditional sense, ''allusion'' is a literary term, though the word has also come to encompass indirect references to any source, including allusions in [[film]] or the [[visual arts]].<ref name="preminger">Preminger & Brogan (1993) ''The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics.'' Princeton University Press.</ref> In literature, allusions are used to link concepts that the reader already has knowledge of, with concepts discussed in the story. It is not possible to predetermine the nature of all the new meanings and inter-textual patterns that an allusion will generate.<ref name="BenPorot76p107"/> In the field of film criticism, a filmmaker's intentionally unspoken visual reference to another film is also called an [[Homage (arts)|homage]]. It may even be sensed that real events have allusive overtones, when a previous event is inescapably recalled by a current one. "Allusion is bound up with a vital and perennial topic in literary theory, the place of authorial intention in interpretation", William Irwin observed, in asking "What is an allusion?"<ref>Irwin, "What Is an Allusion?" ''Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'' '''59''' (2001)</ref>

Without the hearer or reader comprehending the author's intention, an allusion becomes merely a decorative device. Allusion is an economical device, a [[figure of speech]] that uses a relatively short space to draw upon the ready stock of ideas, cultural [[meme]]s or emotion already associated with a topic. Thus, an allusion is understandable only to those with prior knowledge of the covert reference in question, a mark of their [[cultural literacy]].<ref name="preminger"/>