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Contents
Metaphor theories
Practical application of cognitive metaphor
theory in literary studies
Mirror (and anatomy) as the metaphor for
metaphor
Summary of my research topic, or how
does this relate to Paradise Lost?
Metaphor theories
"Every expression that we employ, apart from those
that are connected with the most rudimentary objects
and actions, is a metaphor, though the original
meaning is dulled by constant use." F.L. Lucas: Style
(1955)
- metaphors in scientific discourses: logical positivism
(Davidson)
- cognitive or conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff,
Johnson, Kvecses)
- psychological implication: metaphor conditions
thought
- sociology: target domain is conditioned culturally
Definitions of metaphor
Conceptual metaphor theory: understanding one
conceptual domain through the terms of another
Examples:
LIFE IS A JOURNEY crossroads
THEORIES ARE BUILDINGS the bases of my argument
THOUGHTS ARE FOOD I need to digest this
Conceptual metaphors are made up of a system of
correspondences or projections
LIFE IS A JOURNEY
Source domain
Target domain
Beginning of a road
Birth
End of the road
Death
Departure
Giving uo something
Arrival
Achieving a goal
Crossroads
Life decisions
Company
Partners, loved ones
Going down a slope
Having a bad time
Obstacles on the road
Difficulties in life
Definitions of metaphor 2
a species of perceptually guided adaptive action that may or
may not be expressed verbally.
Metaphor is distinguished from other forms of action,
perception, or cognition jointly by two criteria: (a) It involves
the detection and use of structural or dynamic properties that
remain invariant across kinds, and (b) one kind (the topic
term, is perceived in terms of another kind (the vehicle term).
(Dent-Read and Szokolszky, 2009)
Topic term = target domain
Vehicle term = source domain
My view on metaphor
Study of metaphors
Ernst Robert Curtius: European Literature and the
Latin Middle Ages (1948)
Northrop Frye: The Great Code (1982)
Herbert Grabes: The Mutable Glass (1982)
- typology
- conventionality
- originality
- the age of the mirror (1550-1680)
Sabine Melchior Bonnet: Mirror self-fashioning
Miranda Anderson et. al.: The Book of the Mirror
mirror and subjectivity
Target domain
mirror
metaphor
mirror object
source domain
mirror image
target domain
Research questions
What to study?
- Mirror appears directly or indirectly
- Metaphor for epistemology or for
subjectivity
- Continuitiy, conventionality,
originality
- What is its source domain and target
domain
Further reading