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Part of
Language in Place: Stylistic perspectives on landscape, place and environment
Edited by Daniela Francesca Virdis, Elisabetta Zurru and Ernestine Lahey
[Linguistic Approaches to Literature 37] 2021
► pp. 85–104

Chapter 5
Urban metaphors

Conceptual and literary depictions of cities in the Bible

ORCID logo | Institute of Jewish Studies, University of Antwerp |

Cities in the biblical text are not mere places, but often also characters in a relationship with both human beings and the divine character. Critical-spatial theory has offered a valuable framework to connect these two roles of the city, introducing a functionally informed understanding of space rather than one that is either material or symbolic (Lefebvre 1974; Soja 1996). This chapter builds upon this research, whilst proposing a stylistic component to the framework in order to assess the nature of the textual city fully. Relying on metaphor theory (Lakoff and Johnson 1980 [2003]; Kövecses 2010) and framing theory (Entman 1993; Fillmore 1975), the chapter shows how city space is construed in the biblical text. This space tends to rely on a handful of frequently used conceptual metaphors, such as the city is a container and the city is a woman, and less commonly used images, such as the city is an object. Only in exceptional cases does the text turn to novel metaphors that differ significantly from the well-established city imagery. The actual cityscape in the text is the result of a skillful tailoring of images into a specific context.

Keywords: Conceptual metaphor, literary metaphor, cityscaping, Bible, critical spatiality, framing, city
Article outline
  • 1.Biblical cities
  • 2.From critical spatiality to metaphor
    • 2.1Cities and critical-spatial theory
    • 2.2Cities, framing, and metaphor theory
      • 2.2.1Conceptual and literary metaphors
      • 2.2.2Urban metaphors: Metaphors for the city or in the city
      • 2.2.3The target domain “city”
  • 3.Developing a stylistic approach to the production of city space
    • 3.1Primary conceptual metaphors
      • 3.1.1 the city is a woman
      • 3.1.2 the city is a container
    • 3.2Other conceptual metaphors
      • 3.2.1 the city is an animal
      • 3.2.2 the city is a plant
      • 3.2.3 The city is an object
    • 3.3Novel (literary) metaphors
      • 3.3.1The city is a threshing floor
      • 3.3.2The city is a line on god’s palm
      • 3.3.3The city is a light
    • 4.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 15 April 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lal.37.05ver
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