This paper introduces an extension of recurrence analysis to symbolic sequences. Heuristic arguments based on Shannon-McMillan-Breiman theorem suggest several relations between the statistical features of `symbolic' recurrence plots and the entropy per unit time of the dynamics; their practical efficiency for experimental sequences of finite length is checked numerically on two paradigmatic models, namely discretized logistic map trajectories and Markov chains, and also on experimental behavioral sequences. Specific advantages of RP analysis are presented, among which the detection of non stationary features. Abbreviations