The Metaphor of Sovereignty

Abstract

This chapter has two purposes. The first is to build upon the argument in the previous chapter that modern state sovereignty identifies a symmetry between state and individual but takes an analogy between the liberal individual and liberal state as an ontological reality. The second is to use that analysis to examine the economy of explanation that discloses the metaphorical architecture of modern sovereignty more generally, and thus to discuss, as a case study, the implications of metaphorical thinking for our conceptualising of gender relations.