Abstract: Literary genres include works of history and philosophy, models, allegories, moral and metaphysical fables (which Plato called ‘myths’), and historical fables. These differ in respect of whether works of the genre have a truth-value, and of whether and how that value is a function of the truth-value of the component sentences. For example, in moral fables, in contrast to works of history, truth-value belongs to the whole work but not to its individual sentences. Putting a chunk of writing into a larger or different context may change its meaning entirely. Context includes literary context (the surrounding sentences, which help to determine genre), social context (the authorship and intended audience), and cultural context.

Keywords: allegory, context, myth, Plato,