Chapter published in:
Producing Figurative Expression: Theoretical, experimental and practical perspectivesEdited by John Barnden and Andrew Gargett
[Figurative Thought and Language 10] 2020
► pp. 55–84
Metaphor and one-off pictures
Touch and vision
John M. Kennedy | University of Toronto
All representational media support tropes.
This chapter considers pictures and asks how pictorial
metaphors can be devised by people with relatively
little experience in the medium. The examples considered are
raised-line drawings devised by blind children and adults. In some,
the shapes of objects are anomalous but apt. In others the use of a
line contrasts with its use in outline drawings – for example,
atmospheric lines surround a target object. The
blind and sighted concur on the meaning of pictorial metaphors. The
theory of metaphor in drawings presented here treats perception,
outline, realistic shape and departures from realism. Pictures have
primary meanings, and metaphoric pictures require secondary
meanings.
Keywords: picture, metaphor, tactile drawings, blind, children, line, outline, surface, edge
Published online: 17 December 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/ftl.10.03ken
https://doi.org/10.1075/ftl.10.03ken
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