Should you choose to accept...
Like with Phantom of the Opera, this is a novel that’s debatably in the cultural consciousness today because of its 20th century filmic adaptations. Yet because those adaptations are all uniquely different, it means that when one generalizes about the narrative of Notre Dame, that statement can be refuted on an individual level; just like any praise for the narrative can be countered or supported on an individual level. Yet there are commonalities, so an allusion to Notre Dame does mean something.
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Analysis: Can you think of another narrative, commonly used as an allusion, that may suffer from this kind of dissonance? When one alludes to narratives like these, what can that say about the overarching narrative - whether or not it’s referencing a specific instance of that narrative - and what the intended takeaway from that allusion could be?
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For example, how about saying someone’s success, or some character’s role in the narrative, is a Cinderella story? Which Cinderella story you ask, knowing there are several different movies, at least one musical, various novel iterations, and at least one folkloric version for every culture around the world? That is the question.
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Composition: Take a story you know of, with its varying and various adaptations, and engage the different versions of the character most alluded to in a dialogue about what they each think it means to be alluded to them. What would they have to say about themselves and each other, their similarities and their differences. What would they think is at the core of an allusion to them.
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For example: Scrooge. Dickens’ classic Scrooge would have much to say about himself, and about his various other versions (especially the comedic and comic adventure-seeking Scrooge McDuck). What’s understood to be the core of this allusion? Miserliness, for the most part. But what would each individual Scrooge have to say about how little his personal reform comes into play when he’s being alluded to? Classic Scrooge would probably place a higher value on that than, say, Duck Scrooge, for whom it doesn't seem to be either redressed or an issue on shows like DuckTales.
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