Publications

Publication details [#855]

Martens, Gunther and Benjamin Biebuyck. 2013. Channelling figurativity through narrative: The paranarrative in fiction and non-fiction. Language and Literature 22  (3) : 249–262. 14 pp.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English

Abstract

In this study, it is claimed that metaphor in narrative is not a pre-established, extra-textual form appearing in different instances of discourse, but rather an event resulting from a strategic distribution of information in the narrative process. Accordingly, the appeal to conceptual cultural knowledge is to be considered as a consequence of metaphor interpretation. The rhetorical interconnectedness of metaphor with other figures of speech (such as metonymy) is highlighted, especially by means of the concept of the paranarrative. Moreover, the narrative integration of diacritic forms of indirectness is explored. The article discusses the relation between tropes and narrative, via selected examples from narrative texts (both fictional and non-fictional) written by Juli Zeh, Herta Müller, Jürgen Nieraad, and Siddhartha Mukherjee. These examples channel through narrative figurative domains considered to be known intuitively, i.e.: personifications, iconic pars pro toto references to concentration camps, and metaphors for cancer in disease biographies.