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Article published In:
Empirical Studies of Literariness
Edited by Massimo Salgaro and Paul Sopčák
[Scientific Study of Literature 8:1] 2018
► pp. 47–76

Living metaphor as the site of bidirectional literary engagement

| University of Alberta
| University of Alberta

Articulation of an interactive model of literariness calls for separate specification of (a) a text’s perceptible mode of representation, (b) a reader’s mode of engagement with a text so perceived, and (c) the generative (e.g., creative, expressive) effects of the interaction between this mode of representation and mode of reader engagement. We present a model that identifies two aspects of metaphoric textual representation: structured sequences of nominal metaphors and quasi-metaphoric structures with optional metaphoric construal. This model also distinguishes two modes of reader engagement: expressive enactment and integrative comprehension (Kuiken & Douglas, 2017). The generativity of literary reading is located especially within the interplay between expressive enactment and sequences of metaphoric (and quasi-metaphoric) modes of representation. Evidence suggests that readers reporting expressive enactment also report inexpressible realizations and a temporal progression leading through epistemic tensions that comprise “living metaphor” (Ricoeur, 1981). Thus the generativity – and aesthetic effects – of literary reading are found within the departures from conventionality that comprise the emergent meanings of complex metaphoric structures.

Keywords: metaphor, foregrounding, literariness, absorption, expression
Article outline
  • Generativity in response to metaphoric modes of representation
  • Feeling inexpressibility during engagement with metaphoric modes of representation
  • Perspectives on the creativity of literary metaphor
    • Bidirectional interactions
    • Related theories of the creativity of metaphor
  • Study 1
    • Participants
    • Procedures
    • Results
    • Discussion
  • Expressive enactment and feeling realization
  • Study 2
    • Participants
    • Procedures summary
      • Metaphoric class inclusion task (M-CIT)
      • Absorption-like states questionnaire (ASQ)
      • Experiencing questionnaire (EQ)
      • Aesthetic outcomes
      • Analyses: Models 1–2
    • Results
      • Analyses: Models 3–4
    • Results
    • Discussion
  • General discussion
  • Motivating theory revision
  • References
Published online: 17 January 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ssol.18004.kui
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