Using indirect or coded language, especially animal fables or allegories, to express political or social criticism while avoiding direct censorship—inspired by Aesop's method.
From Aesop + -ian (adjectival suffix). Popularized especially in Soviet literary criticism to describe how Russian writers used indirect methods to critique their government.
During the Soviet era, writers would tell seemingly innocent stories about animals to critique Stalin's regime without getting arrested—scholars called this technique 'Aesopian language,' and it's a fascinating example of how humans ingeniously work around censorship through allegory.
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