Prof. Dr. Monika Fludernik
Spring Term 2008
Hauptseminar Metaphor
Thursday 10-12, Raum 4, Sedanstraße 6
Texts:
Shakespeare, Macbeth. Arden edition
Angela Carter, „Erl-King“
poems and other prose texts will be available in xerox as a reader
The seminar will look at theories of metaphor and analyse a wide variety of poems and prose texts
as well as one play in which metaphors, metonymies, similes play an important role. The aim of the
course is to increase your familiarity with imagery, to help you handle metaphor more easily, and to
lessen anxiety about poetry.
The course is open to all BA, MA, Magister and Staatsexamen students.
Course Requirements:
5 minute oral report in class; participation in the discussion; minutes once for one session; term
paper of 15 pages text minimum (excluding title page, table of contents and Works Cited) in
departmental style sheet (see my homepage).
Paper due 1 October, 2008
Office hours: mostly Wednesday 10-12, but see list on secretary´s door (room 4207) and
sign up for office hour. (Secretary´s telephone 203 3310);
email: sekretariat.fludernik@anglistik.uni-freiburg.de
BA and MA candidates: Please make sure that I get your Matrikelnummer plus the information
whether you are doing this course as a Studienleistung or Prüfungsleistung and for which module.
BA and MA candidates should talk to me about the timing of their seminar papers within a month of
the start of classes.
Candidates who are willing to do an oral report on April 24 are requested to get in touch with
me as soon as possible.
Preliminary Schedule
Thursday 24 April
1 May no session
Introductory Session
OR: definitions of the term metaphor
OR: definitions of the term metonymy
8 May
Initial Exercises with metaphor and simile
OR: classical discussions of metaphor
OR: medieval conceptions of metaphor
Whitsun vacation -- no sessions
22 May Corpus Christi -- still no session
29 May
Macbeth
OR: I.A. Richards´ theory of metaphor
OR: David Lodge on metaphor
5 June
Macbeth continued
OR: Clemens on Shakespeare´s Imagery
OR: Spurgeon on Shakespeare´s Imagery
12 June
Shakespeare, Sonnets (see reader)
OR: Lakoff, Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things
OR: Lakoff, Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things
19 June
More Exercises in Metaphor: Angela Carter
OR: Lakoff/Johnson, Metaphors We Live By
OR: Turner, Death is the Mother of Beauty
26 June
Political Uses of Metaphor: Burke (see reader)
OR: Lakoff on war metaphors
OR: Lakoff on freedom
3 July
Metaphor and Cognition:
OR: Turner, Reading Minds
OR: Turner, The Literary Mind
10 July
Metonymy
OR: essay
OR: essay
17 July
Simile v. Metaphor
OR: essay
OR: essay
In order to compensate for the many sessions that drop out due to vacation periods, public holidays
and examination week, we will discuss possible additional sessions in the first class. It may be
possible for me to organise for a session during exam week, and we will have to find one slot for an
additional session somewhere so that we get at least 11 sessions (the minimum for the spring term).