Multiple Truths and Metaphorical Models

Abstract

I have argued in Chapter 2 that overemphasis on the interiority and alterity of the buried-life metanarrative occludes the richness and range of authors’ stories of their writing processes. Before moving to Chapters 4 and 5, where I analyze metaphors of labor and sociality, I establish in this chapter a framework for understanding why authors might use metaphorical stories of composing, what kinds of “knowledge” and “truth” can be found in such stories, what method we might use to read them, and what contributions these metaphorical stories make to understanding conceptions of composing.