Mirror as meta-metaphor

Conceptual metaphor theory applied in the

study of mirror and anatomy metaphors in
seventeenth century England
gnes Bat 09.22.2016
Research seminar presentation

Contents
Metaphor theories
Practical application of cognitive metaphor
theory in literary studies
Mirror (and anatomy) as the metaphor for
metaphor
Summary of my research topic, or how
does this relate to Paradise Lost?

Metaphor theories
"Every expression that we employ, apart from those
that are connected with the most rudimentary objects
and actions, is a metaphor, though the original
meaning is dulled by constant use." F.L. Lucas: Style
(1955)
- metaphors in scientific discourses: logical positivism
(Davidson)
- cognitive or conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff,
Johnson, Kvecses)
- psychological implication: metaphor conditions
thought
- sociology: target domain is conditioned culturally

Definitions of metaphor
Conceptual metaphor theory: understanding one
conceptual domain through the terms of another
Examples:
LIFE IS A JOURNEY crossroads
THEORIES ARE BUILDINGS the bases of my argument
THOUGHTS ARE FOOD I need to digest this
Conceptual metaphors are made up of a system of
correspondences or projections

 LIFE IS A JOURNEY
Source domain
Target domain
Beginning of a road
Birth
End of the road
Death
Departure
Giving uo something
Arrival
Achieving a goal
Crossroads
Life decisions
Company
Partners, loved ones
Going down a slope
Having a bad time
Obstacles on the road
Difficulties in life

Definitions of metaphor 2
a species of perceptually guided adaptive action that may or
may not be expressed verbally.
Metaphor is distinguished from other forms of action,
perception, or cognition jointly by two criteria: (a) It involves
the detection and use of structural or dynamic properties that
remain invariant across kinds, and (b) one kind (the topic
term, is perceived in terms of another kind (the vehicle term).
(Dent-Read and Szokolszky, 2009)
Topic term = target domain
Vehicle term = source domain

My view on metaphor

Aimed at understanding and making understood an

abstract concept
Connects two conceptual domains
The two domains may vary in culturally and in time as well,
and so do the system of correspondences!
Perceptually guided
Involves the recognition and use of properties
Grounded in experiences and culture
They condition thought

Study of metaphors
Ernst Robert Curtius: European Literature and the
Latin Middle Ages (1948)
Northrop Frye: The Great Code (1982)
Herbert Grabes: The Mutable Glass (1982)
- typology
- conventionality
- originality
- the age of the mirror (1550-1680)
Sabine Melchior Bonnet: Mirror self-fashioning
Miranda Anderson et. al.: The Book of the Mirror
mirror and subjectivity

The metaphor of metaphor

Mirror: agenda, program for making sense of
experience
Source domain

Target domain

mirror

metaphor

mirror object

source domain

mirror image

target domain

mirroring, the character of the reflective

surface

the ability to refer to an abstract concept by a

non-abstract one

Research questions
What to study?
- Mirror appears directly or indirectly
- Metaphor for epistemology or for
subjectivity
- Continuitiy, conventionality,
originality
- What is its source domain and target
domain

What happened to the mirror?

Anatomy metaphor
Thomas Tuke: The christians looking glasse, wherein hee may
cleerly see, hos lue to God liuely expressed, his fidelity truely
discouered, and prode againts God and man, anatomised.
Whereby the hypicrisie of the times in notoriously manifested.
By Thomas Tuke, minister of Gods word at Saint Giles in the
Fields. (London: Nicholas Okes, 1615)
George Hakewill (1578-1549): The Vanitie of the Eie. First
beganne for the comfort of a gentlewoman bereaved of her
sight and since upon occasion inlarged(1608)
Apologie ... of the Power and Providence of God(1627)

My research on Paradise Lost

Milton is aware of the mutability of the
mirror, but he uses the image in its stead.
System of likenesses govern the
relationships between the characters.
Marshall Grossmann: Authors to themselves
(1988)
Metaphor for authorship as the making up of
the subject.

Further reading

Kvecses Zoltn (2002): A metafora

George Lakoff, Mark Johnson: Metaphors We Live By (1980)
Herbert Grabes (1982): The Mutable Glass
Stuart Clark (2007): Vanities of the eye
Sabine Melchior-Bonnet (2002): The Mirror. A history
Miranda Anderson (ed.) (2008): The Book of the Mirror
A. B. Chambers (1963): The Mind is its own place. in: Renaissance
News.
Cathy H. Dent-Read & Agnes Szokolszky (1993): Where Do
Metaphors Come From? in: Metaphor and Symbolic Activity
Marshall Grossmann: Authors to Themselves (1988)
Jonathan Hugh: Bodies by Art Fashioned: Anatomy, Anatomists,
and English Poetry 1570-1680. (dissertation, 1971)