Question

A poem describes a heroic girl escaping danger. One verse of the poem describes her as a "teenage Lara Croft." Lara Croft is an athletic and intelligent video game character who explores dangerous tombs and ancient ruins. What type of allusion does the author create?

Answer 1

The author is making a cultural allusion, comparing the character to something in our present day culture.

Answer 2

This is an example of what we call a cultural allusion.

Explained briefly, a cultural allusion is a brief, indirect reference to something with a historical, cultural, literary or political relationship. It can be a person, a place, a thing, or even an idea. It's important to note that it not always detail the person, place or thing to which it refers.

As the main character in a videogame series, Lara Croft is part of modern culture, therefore being a modern culture allusion in this example.

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