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Palgrave Macmillan

The Relevance of Metaphor

Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Bishop and Seamus Heaney

  • Book
  • © 2021

Overview

Authors:
  1. Josie O'Donoghue

    1. Clare College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

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  • Traces the development of relevance theory and its implications for literary criticism
  • Considers recent developments in relevance-theoretic thinking about metaphor
  • Explores the idea that relevance theory might contribute to literary critical understanding of metaphor

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
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  2. Introduction: Communicating Metaphor

    • Josie O’Donoghue
    Pages 1-14

  3. Communicative Metaphor in Theory

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 15-15
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    2. Relevance

      • Josie O’Donoghue
      Pages 17-67

    3. Metaphor

      • Josie O’Donoghue
      Pages 69-109

  4. Communicative Metaphor in Practice

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 111-111
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    2. ‘The Impossible Metaphors’: Inference in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson

      • Josie O’Donoghue
      Pages 113-180

    3. ‘Things as They Are’: Implicature in the Poetry of Elizabeth Bishop

      • Josie O’Donoghue
      Pages 181-228

    4. ‘Poet as Conscience’: Mutual Manifestness in the Poetry of Seamus Heaney

      • Josie O’Donoghue
      Pages 229-277

    5. Conclusion

      • Josie O’Donoghue
      Pages 279-287

  5. Back Matter

    Pages 289-294
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Keywords

About this book

This book considers metaphor as a communicative phenomenon in the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Bishop and Seamus Heaney, in light of the relevance theory account of communication first developed by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson in the 1980s. The first half of the book introduces relevance theory, situating it in relation to literary criticism, and then surveys the history of metaphor in literary studies and assesses relevance theory’s account of metaphor, including recent developments within the theory such as Robyn Carston’s notion of ‘the lingering of the literal’. The second half of the book considers the role of metaphor in the work of three nineteenth- and twentieth-century poets through the lens of three terms central to relevance theory: inference, implicature and mutual manifestness. The volume will be of interest to students and scholars working in literary studies, pragmatics and stylistics, as well as to relevance theorists.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Clare College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Josie O'Donoghue

About the author

Josie O’Donoghue is a Research Fellow in English at Clare College, University of Cambridge, UK.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Relevance of Metaphor

  • Book Subtitle: Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Bishop and Seamus Heaney

  • Authors: Josie O'Donoghue

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83954-3

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-83953-6Published: 28 November 2021

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-83956-7Published: 29 November 2022

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-83954-3Published: 27 November 2021

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: IX, 294

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Pragmatics, Stylistics, Poetry and Poetics, Literary Theory

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