Content and Form

Abstract

A remarkable demonstration of the contempt literary theory has had for content appears in the various reference dictionaries of literary terms. Almost invariably, they offer lengthy definitions of form, while usually failing to include an entry at all for content. Yet all the while, the term “content” recurs throughout other definitions, a hidden but necessary component of explaining the various methods of making sense of literary texts. A more nuanced account of the form-content distinction, one that draws on both the analytic philosophy of literature and the sophisticated scholarship on allegory in literary theory, explains how form can be a tool for the expression of literary content.