For other uses, see Analog (disambiguation).

The term analogue is used in literary history in two related senses:

• a work which resembles another in terms of one or more motifs, characters
  Fictional character
  A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
  
  , scenes, phrases or events.
• an individual motif, character, scene, event or phrase which resembles one found in another work.

Similarities may be fortuitous, in which case the merit of establishing an analogue is that it makes it possible to see how works from different authors (perhaps also in different languages, periods, genres) treat similar characters or motifs. But the term is used particularly in the study of legend

Legend

A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...

s, folk tales and oral literature

Oral literature

Oral literature corresponds in the sphere of the spoken word to literature as literature operates in the domain of the written word. It thus forms a generally more fundamental component of culture, but operates in many ways as one might expect literature to do...

 for works that have features in common either because they derive from a shared tradition or because they both rework material from a specific older text, which may or may not still survive.

For example, the story of Noah and the Flood in the Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 and the Epic of Gilgamesh

Epic of Gilgamesh

Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Mesopotamia and is among the earliest known works of literature. Scholars believe that it originated as a series of Sumerian legends and poems about the protagonist of the story, Gilgamesh king of Uruk, which were fashioned into a longer Akkadian epic much...

are analogues.

However, where one work draws directly on another, the term analogue is inappropriate: the earlier work is the source of the later.

In the literature of earlier periods, it may not be easy to decide whether a particular work is a direct source for another, especially if there are uncertainties of dating. The phrase sources and analogues is used to cover all material relevant to the creation of a particular work.