Metaphor and Literature

Abstract

The preceding chapter made it clear that foregrounding theory continues to play a key role both in arguments for WWL and in empirical research on literary reading. Metaphor plays a central role in foregrounding and this makes it an excellent test case for the theory and for the arguments for WWL that are related to the theory. The remainder of the book is concerned with metaphor against this background. Metaphor is a major topic in a range of disciplines including linguistics, literary theory, philosophy, and psychology, and because so much has been written about it, reviews of the literature run the risk of becoming excessively long. In order to avoid this, the review given below has been limited in two ways. First, it concentrates on theory, especially conceptual metaphor theory. Secondly, it concentrates on relating this theory to literature: the comprehension, interpretation, and evaluation of metaphor in literature. Empirical research and further theoretical work will be introduced in later chapters as the need arises. The first half of the review below provides a general introduction to linguistic metaphor and to conceptual metaphor theory and the second half of the review concentrates on metaphor in literature.