Critical Theory: Metaphor (1) – A2 (Unit 4: Further & Independent Reading)
What is metaphor?
Write down both a definition of metaphor, and an example.
Critical Theory: Metaphor (1) – A2 (Unit 4: Further & Independent Reading)
The Standard View of Metaphor
Words or phrases with “hidden” meanings; we readers have to
search for or “decipher” the hidden meanings.
I.A. Richards
Metaphors divided into two parts
1) Vehicle – the words/phrases used
2) Tenor – the “hidden”/metaphorical meanings of the “vehicle.”
Does this model work?
NOTE: According to this logic, “vehicle” and “tenor” are surely
metaphors for discussing metaphors...
Critical Theory: Metaphor (1) – A2 (Unit 4: Further & Independent Reading)
Why/how is this metaphor?
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women
merely players;
Why/how is this not
metaphorical?
There’s the tree.
“TREE”
Critical Theory: Metaphor (1) – A2 (Unit 4: Further & Independent Reading)
How does language “hook onto the world”?
How are you able to understand
“There’s the tree”?
“TREE”
Signifier
Signified
Critical Theory: Metaphor (1) – A2 (Unit 4: Further & Independent Reading)
One view:
All language is metaphorical; but words
that have the surprise or “magic” of
metaphor can be counted as “live”
metaphors, while metaphors that pass
unnoticed are “dead metaphors” (e.g.,
“table leg”).
Two aliens, Bouba and Kiki, have just
arrived on Earth. They look like this:
But which one’s Bouba, and
which is Kiki? Decide, then discuss,
briefly, with a partner
The Bouba-Kiki Effect
Bouba
Kiki
TheSome
same scientists
brain
In “Bouba-Kiki,”
we
wonder
if this ability
scientists
think that
think
that
people
to
make
new
and
the
human
mind is
strange
make
aconnections
connection
able
to make
links
between
unrelated
between
the harsh
(“crossbetween
things
that
“K”things
sounds
of “Kiki”
domain
mapping”)
dothe
not
have or
and
cutting
might explain our
obvious
jagged
shape.
ability to make
connections...
metaphors.
Kiki
Bouba
95%-98%
of people
opt for this
one. But
why?...
Critical Theory: Metaphor (1) – A2 (Unit 4: Further & Independent Reading)
Two views that differ from Richards, but agree with Bouba and Kiki...
Donald Davidson
Metaphor is not a matter not of meaning (“tree =
)
Metaphor is a matter of language in use
Metaphor works by association
That is, words can over ever have their “literal” meaning – think about
the relationship of “tree and
or “table leg” and
But “live” metaphor happens when familiar words are used in strange ways.
Richard Rorty (influenced by Davidson)
The physical, real world IS “out there,” but our relationship to it is made in
and by language. The “world does not speak Newtonian” just because
Newton’s science was better than Aristotle’s.
Therefore, metaphor is invention/innovation. Creativity is the act of
“redescription” or “remetaphorization.”
Critical Theory: Metaphor (1) – A2 (Unit 4: Further & Independent Reading)
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans
everything.