This essay is study of Aztec stone boxes from the pre-conquest Aztec empire. My study focuses on the interpretation of carvings on the surfaces, as well as the interiors and lids when applicable. The study includes not only traditionally functional boxes, but also altars (blocks or basins) and offering chambers, as comparative examples. The thesis focuses on three specific stone boxes located in museums in Mexico, Germany, and Great Britain: the Islas y Bustamante Box (Museo Nacional de Anthropologi­a, Mexico), the Hackmack Box (Museum fur Volkerkunde, Hamburg), and the Ahuitzotl Box (British Museum, London, and Museum fur Volkerkunde, Berlin). I am studying the iconographic programs, with a focus on themes of auto-sacrifice and creation, carved on the art objects themselves and their function as story-telling devices, with or without the contents that the box may have contained. In their forms, the objects themselves are metaphors for space, time, Aztec history, and Aztec creation myths. The Hackmack Box depicts the creation god, Quetzalcoatl (feathered serpent), and refers to the creation myth of mankind saved from the underworld and resurrected from the ashes of bones, using Quetzalcoatl's own blood. The box bears Montezuma's name glyph and is likely a tribute to his birth, his ascension and success as a ruler, and his piety. The Islas y Bustamante Box depicts the god of caves, Tepeyolotl, and refers to the myth that man ascended from caves, as all of life originated from the mouth of a cave that was also a natural spring. The box itself is a metaphor for this type of cave. The Ahuitzotl Box depicts the god of water Tlaloc, and refers to the myth of the tlaloques (helpers) discovery of "food-mountain", in other words, the discovery of maize that nourished the Aztec people. It has been linked to the dedication of the aqueduct built under the Aztec ruler Ahuitzotl, and serves as a tribute to this historical event. The cosmic arrangement of the motifs on these boxes reveal the object as a metaphor for space and time itself as they comply with the Aztec's earthly orientation of the heavens, the earth, an the underworld.

The central question of this thesis is: “How can people be mobilised to feel strongly attached to or invest into their nations?” Following a review of literature on the psychology of nationhood, a social identity approach towards national attachment is suggested. The possibility of the family metaphor (e.g. fatherland) as a rhetorical device anchoring the nation in filial qualities (e.g. belonging) is discussed. In the first study, establishing the general prevalence of family metaphors and aiming to test their use as a means of mobilisation, the content of language corpora, speeches, parliamentary debates and national anthems is analysed. The results demonstrate frequent use, especially in connection to mobilisation (e.g. in speeches). Study II tests whether merely linking a stimulus to a family metaphor will elicit a positive response and increase national identification. It does so by presenting a student sample (n = 149) with a neutral picture stimulus with different titles including family terms and family metaphors; no effects of any particular picture title on national identity emerged, but a considerable share of participants provided negative Nazi-related associations when primed with ‘fatherland'. Given the apparent relevance of meaning, the third study employed a word association task to provide a more in-depth account of German (n = 119) and British students' (n =138) common associations for family metaphors, confirming that some participants associate them with a negative past (e.g. WW II) or negative politics (e.g. nationalism). In an attempt to avoid the impact of said negative associations, Study IV draws on brotherhood – the metaphor seen as most positive – adding a call for ‘working in unity as volunteers', i.e. a context matching the metaphoric use in anthems, contrasting it with a) a call to work ‘as citizens' or b) a non-matching context (‘being devoted'). While it was assumed that such a fitting mobilisation context (i.e. ‘working together') would be buttressed by a family metaphor, similar results emerged. In a sample (n = 102) matched to the overall population, the brother metaphor did not have an effect on national identification and participants reported lower agreement with a statement presented together with a family metaphor, often providing associations of nationalism or Nazism. The fifth study responded to the frequent associations of the Second World War by providing British (n = 109) and German (n = 113) students with a distant past (1830s) or WW II context prior to presenting a text that was either using family metaphors or not. It aimed to test whether avoiding a link to the Second World War would alleviate the negative associations. However, the results pointed in the opposite direction, i.e. German participants were more likely to invest in their nations if family metaphors and the 1930s occurred together, albeit the negative understanding of family metaphors provided in the previous studies remained, which can be interpreted as an expression of collective guilt. In the last study, a fictitious nation was presented to a general student sample at the University of St Andrews (n = 198) as either trying to achieve independence through militant struggle or building cultural institutions. As in the previous studies, the majority of participants saw family metaphors as negative, and only a small minority from countries with a higher acceptance of power-distance described them in a positive light. This thesis argues that, in the light of the results, the family metaphor has to be understood as evoking historically situated meanings and is seen as essentialising nationhood, a notion predominantly not matching the understanding participants had of their nation and consequently being rejected. It suggests that a) (national) identity research needs to be aware of context and b) other frameworks for exalted attachment should be investigated.

This work is concerned with the role of metaphor in language, discourse and thought. The first section presents a brief historical survey of the origins and development of theorizing about the metaphor as a legitimate cognitive tool and not just a rhetorically or poetically effective but otherwise uninformative sort of expression. The aim of the second section is to outline several different accounts of metaphor given by contemporary researchers in the fields of the philosophy of language, congnitive psychology and linguistics as well as to hint at some possible ways they could be interconnected. Especially those theories are concerned which in some way diverge from the traditional view on metaphor as a fringe phenomenon of language and discourse and which on the contrary stress its central role in the meaning- making activity of the human mind. Although the work does not focus primarly on the metaphor in art, its relevance for aesthetics lies nevertheless in its highlighting certain aesthetic or poetic aspects of human reasoning and everyday communication. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Technology: Fine Art, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2015. / This dissertation sets out to investigate the interpretation of the garden in the work of Marianne North (1840-1926), Claude Monet (1840-1926) and Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006) and my art practice. The garden has historically been a site for man’s interaction with nature and has been the subject of interpretation by Fine Art and Botanic artists throughout history. Marianne North’s (1830-1890) interpretation of the garden is positioned somewhere between Victorian flower painter and Botanic artist. An intrepid traveller, she could be considered as a topographical artist in that she documented the gardens and the flora and fauna of the countries she visited. The focus is on her visit to South Africa in 1883. Claude Monet (1840-1926), in his late Impressionist interpretation of the garden, focused on the seasonal play of light on his Japanese inspired garden at Giverny. Artist and poet Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006) in his interpretation of his garden Little Sparta, acknowledges the transience of the garden and its constant metamorphosis. His three dimensional poetry in the form of inscribed rocks and sculptures reflects his interpretation of the garden as a location of contestation. In an exhibition titled Hortus Conclusis I explore the fragility of the garden through the use of porcelain as a metaphor for the transience of life. / M

Thesis advisor: Kevin Newmark / This study focuses on the intricate connection between painting and writing in A la recherche du temps perdu, the one and only novel completed by Marcel Proust. Painting and writing, although different in their methods of expression, with the former consisting of visual images and the latter consisting of words, have a fundamental objective in common which is creating images in order to reveal the real essence of life. Proust develops correspondences between paintings (that he describes verbally) and writings not only to portray his novelistic characters, but also to reinforce his aesthetics of writing. This study stresses that correspondence to which Proust gives the name of metaphor. By choosing metaphor as the most important criterion in writing the novel which the Narrator decides to undertake at the very end of la Recherche, he speaks for Proust who elevates metaphor as the central rhetorical figure of his writing. Metaphor gives to the Proustian world a sense of continuity and homogeneity despite its innate fragmentary and dispersed impressions. In the Proustian novel, memories are incomplete, and loves are sporadic. Time and space are never continuous. Yet a homogenous ensemble is brought forth from this universe in fragments. It is metaphor that gives unity to those diverse elements by abolishing the borders that separate them. The principle of metaphor brings distant elements closer. Swann’s way unites with the Guermantes’, past transposes over present. By comparing painting and writing in the Proustian novel, I am able to emphasize the author’s aesthetics, at the foundation of which lies metaphor. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Romance Languages and Literatures.

Esta pesquisa traz a análise de fenômenos linguísticos extraídos de entrevistas realizadas com seis sujeitos afásicos com diferentes graus de dificuldade de acesso lexical. Observamos a habilidade desses sujeitos em produzir e compreender nomes de animais utilizados em contexto não-literal. Desenvolvemos uma entrevista para determinar se os sujeitos em questão apresentavam dificuldade para acessar os nomes de animais escolhidos. Numa primeira etapa, os sujeitos tiveram de nomeá-los e descrevê-los e, posteriormente, utilizá-los dentro de um contexto provido pela entrevistadora. A hipótese é que possa haver diferença entre a habilidade do sujeito para produzir e compreender nomes de animais dependendo do contexto apresentado. Duas perspectivas de análise diferentes são apresentadas aqui: primeiro, temos as teorias baseadas em correlatos biológicos da linguagem e, em segundo, a teoria linguística de Roman Jakobson sobre o processamento da linguagem e a sua divisão em dois eixos principais, a metáfora e a metonímia (habilidades de abstração baseadas na similaridade e na contiguidade, respectivamente). Alguns sujeitos apresentam dificuldade para produzir formas de palavras no seu sentido literal, mas o mesmo não acontece quando as mesmas palavras são produzidas no seu sentido não-literal, sugerindo que nesses sujeitos o sistema semântico-lexical pode estar mais preservado do que se imagina, sendo que o tipo de entrada ou saída dessas formas lexicais pode ser o elemento prejudicado. A análise das entrevistas realizadas revela que a compreensão dessas mesmas metáforas foi uma tarefa mais laboriosa para os sujeitos, o que reforça nossa hipótese, uma vez que durante a tarefa de compreensão das metáforas os sujeitos não foram providos do contexto dado na tarefa de produção. / This research proposes the analysis of language phenomena taken from interviews made with six aphasic subjects presenting different degrees of lexical access deficits. The focus of this paper is the observation of the ability of these subjects to produce and comprehend names of animals used in a metaphorical context. We developed an interview in order to determine whether the subjects presented problems to access the chosen names of animals. In the first part of the interview, the subjects were asked to name and describe the animal pictures presented and, aftermost, they had to produce and comprehend those names in the context provided by the interviewer. Two distinct perspectives are presented in this paper: first, we have theories based on biological correlates of language, and in second, the linguistic theory by Roman Jakobson about the processing of language and its division in two main axis: metaphor and metonymy (modes of relation based on similarity and contiguity, respectively). Some subjects present distress to produce word forms in their literal meaning, whereas the same does not occur when those words are used in their nonliteral meaning. This suggests that these subjects present a better preservation of the semantic-lexical system than expected, and the only affected element can be the type of input or output of the lexical form. We can see in the interviews presented here that the comprehension of the mentioned metaphors was a more laborious task for the subjects, which reinforces our hypothesis, once during the comprehension part of the interview, the subjects were not provided with the context given previously, in the production task.

Trata-se de investigar a atividade da compreensão em Hannah Arendt. Para tanto, assumiremos como horizonte desta pesquisa alguns aspectos do fenômeno totalitário. Nossa hipótese é que a compreensão, ao contrário de outras atividades mentais, está intimamente ligada ao mundo. Além disso, o compreender influencia a atitude dos indivíduos na medida em que os atrela aos acontecimentos. Por conseguinte, compreensão e acontecimento engendram uma nova experiência espaço-temporal, mediante a qual os fatos são desnaturalizados, abrindo-se, assim, à inspeção humana. A abertura operada pela compreensão não é, como poderíamos supor, de todo exterior ao homem. Segundo Arendt, o domínio do mundo e o domínio do pensamento comunicam suas experiências através das metáforas. Analisar o modo como o pensar se manifesta no mundo e como as experiências mundanas são apreendidas pelo pensamento mostrase fundamental para um bom entendimento da atividade da compreensão. / We intend to investigate the activity of understanding in Hannah Arendt. Therefore we will base this research on some aspects of the totalitarian phenomenon. Our hypothesis is that understanding, unlike other mental activities, is closely connected to the world. Furthermore, the activity of understanding influences the attitude of the men as approaches them to the events. Thus, understanding and events create a new space-time experience, by which facts are not naturalized, so the events are open to the human inspection. The opening created by the understanding is not, as we might suppose, external to men. According to Arendt, world and thought spaces communicate their experiences through metaphors. To analyze how the thinking manifests itself in the world and how the mundane experiences are apprehended by thought is crucial to reveal the implications of understanding.

Mais do que qualquer outra figura de linguagem, a metáfora tem recebido a atenção de diversos pensadores desde Aristóteles, na direção de ampliar suas características e funções. A teoria interacionista da metáfora teve o mérito de elevar a metáfora da função decorativa e periférica na linguagem à função cognitiva e estruturante do pensamento. Essa dimensão essencialmente cognitiva da metáfora foi incorporada progressivamente à ciência por meio do uso das analogias, metáforas e modelos na produção do conhecimento. É essa via epistemológica aberta pela metáfora que nos permite revisitar a Psicanálise e o lugar da metáfora no interior desse conhecimento. Nossa pesquisa se propôs a realizar um estudo sobre a metáfora na obra de Jacques Lacan. Estudo que se deu em duas vertentes, justificadas pelo duplo papel da metáfora na teoria psicanalítica lacaniana. De um lado, tratamos de um uso que podemos denominar de epistemológico, ou seja, a forma como a metáfora foi utilizada para construir conhecimento a partir de duas metáforas lacanianas: as metáforas ópticas e o conto de Edgar Allan Poe A carta roubada. Observamos que, embora nem sempre os termos das metáforas analisadas mantenham uma correspondência biunívoca, elas apresentam forte ressonância, vista a grande quantidade de desdobramentos teóricos possibilitados por este instrumento. Concluímos que as metáforas lacanianas funcionam em um contexto de invenção do conhecimento e servem como um filtro, um anteparo a partir do qual os fenômenos do inconsciente são analisados. O segundo objetivo de nossa pesquisa é descobrir qual a teoria da metáfora de Lacan, em virtude da importância que essa noção adquire em sua teoria fundamentando um dos mecanismos do inconsciente. Concluímos que Lacan, para dar conta das questões próprias da Psicanálise, desenvolve uma nova teoria da metáfora, a qual se distingue das teorias clássicas / More than any other figure of speech, the metaphor has been a focus of attention for several intellectuals since Aristotle, always in the direction to adding to its particulars and functions. The interactionist theory of the metaphor had the merit to raise the metaphor, from its decorative and peripheral function in language, to its cognitive and structural functions in thought. This mainly cognitive dimension was progressively incorporated into science, through the uses of analogies, metaphors and models in the production of knowledge. This epistemological path opened by the metaphor allows us to revisit Psychoanalysis and the place of the metaphor within this knowledge. Our research has proposed a study about the metaphor in Jacques Lacans work. This study has focused around two paths, justified by the double role of metaphor in psychoanalytic theory of Lacan. In one path, we deal with a use that we can call epistemological, in other words, the way that metaphor was used to create knowledge, from two metaphors of Lacan: the optical metaphors and Edgar Allan Poes tale The purloined letter. We note that, although not always the terms of the metaphors analyzed present a one to one correspondence, they do have a strong resonance, given the large amount of theoretical developments made possible by this instrument. We conclude that the Lacanian metaphors work in the context of the invention of knowledge and serve as a filter, a screen from which the phenomena of the unconscious are analyzed. The second path our research explored was to discover which one was Lacan\'s theory of the metaphor, given the importance that this notion acquires in his theory being one of the basic mechanisms of the unconscious. We conclude that Lacan, to account for Psychoanalysis own issues, develops a new theory of the metaphor, which is distinct from the classical theories

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‘Relevance theory’ is a linguistic theory offering an alternative to the conventional ‘code model’ of communication, by suggesting that inference, rather than coding and decoding, is the primary driving force motivating interpretation. In this thesis, I consider the implications for literary criticism of the relevance theory account of communication, particularly in relation to metaphor, as an enduring concern of both linguistics and literary studies. The thesis focuses on three temporally disparate authors – Shakespeare, Dickinson and Heaney – whose work, analyzed by linguists as well as literary critics, is abundant in metaphor, but might prompt us to think about literary communication in different ways. The Introduction considers the coincidence of the central terms of relevance theory (context, interpretation, inference, intention) with many of the fundamental concerns of literary criticism. Chapter One examines various accounts of metaphor, historical and recent, by literary critics, philosophers and linguists, before offering a brief introduction to relevance theory’s ‘deflationary’ account of metaphor and its implications for literary critical analysis. Chapter Two looks at plays by Shakespeare that are as much concerned with communication as they are representations of it, and considers how relevance theory’s account of the cognitive process of developing new interpretations on the spot, in context, based on expectations of relevance, challenges any straightforward sense of what textual metaphors ‘mean’. Chapter Three explores the striking prominence of the term ‘inference’, fundamental to the relevance theory account of communication, in Dickinson’s poetry. Whilst Dickinson’s ‘definitional’, ‘X is Y’ metaphors appear to facilitate a bridging of the gap between abstractions and the concrete world linguistically, her dependence on inference exposes the bleak uncertainty of that which can only be inferred, whilst nonetheless forging a communicative bond between the poet writing and her multiple audiences. Chapter Four analyzes different figurative forms in Heaney’s poetry, and looks particularly at the relationship between metaphor and simile in light of the relevance theory account. Critical analyses of Heaney’s work often attribute political significance to what are assumed to be metaphors within his poetry, without considering the role played by (perhaps unconscious) interpretative expectations of the kind relevance theory would predict; taking local linguistic context more thoroughly into account might offer a very different perspective on what Heaney is ‘saying’. In conclusion, I review Lakoff and Johnson’s profoundly influential ‘conceptual metaphor theory’ (CMT), and propose that relevance theory’s linguistically-driven account of metaphor in communication needs elements of ‘conceptual’ accounts such as CMT which describe metaphor as a matter of thought as well as language. Metaphor is a tremendously powerful communicative tool, but one to which literary critical analysis cannot do justice without a functioning theory of communication such as that offered by relevance theory.