Dream vision

A Dream Vision is a literary genre, literary device, or literary convention, where the narrator falls asleep and learns information in a dream, usually from a guide, that s/he could not have learned otherwise. After waking up, the narrator usually resolves to share her/his knowledge with other people. Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy is an example of Dream Vision literature. The Old English Poem, Dream of the Rood, is another example. Unlike Dante, whose guide is Virgil, a real person, the guide in Dream of the Rood is the Cross on which Christ was crucified. If the Dream Vision includes a Guide that is a speaking inanimate object, then it employs the trope of prosopeia (prosopopoeia).