Anne Pankhurst explores the function of metonymy in narrative fiction. In the novel analyzed, the reader has to activate metonymic strategies in order to understand the impact of an apparently simple object, an earring. The earring serves several metonymic functions: it is, in particular, a means of identifying its wearer and, at a macro-structural level, holds together different episodes of the novel. Pankhurst argues that the complex use of metonymy in this narrative cannot be accounted for by a single theory. The most promising approach to understanding the complex processes of reference and recontextualization in this world of fiction are provided by Riffaterre's functional view of metonymy and Gibbs' metonymic models of thought. (Klaus-Uwe Panther and Günter Radden)