a short history of tropes

Metaphor, Metonomy, Synecdoche, Irony

A Short History of Tropes

Theory of LanguagePlato

Foundation of early Christian mysticism; includes theory of angels; resurgence in Renaissance

Aristotle

Rediscovered through Arabic tradition in the 13th century; inspired scholasticism

Classical cosmology

Platonic theory of the Universe translated throughAllegory.

Aristotle’s theory emphasizesLogic, order, rationalism

Confrontation with languagePlato leads to

exegeticsPlato rejects literal

force of language except as it impinges on unveiling the mystical

Aristotle leads to grammar and rhetoric

Theory of metaphor becomes a science

Plato and the vernacularTheory of Metaphor

as part of the great chain of being

IntegumentaVeiled metaphorsExegetics becomes

applied to vernacular texts (e.g. Virgil’s Aeneid)

Rose Window

Window becomes the allegory of the universe

Aristotle and RhetoricDevelops a system of

literary analysisExplains and

categorizes kinds of metaphors (tropes)

Development of semiotics and theory of understanding

Medieval Literary TheorySecular

commentariesRenewed interest in

vernacularEfforts to combine

exegetics and logicVernacular authority

Dante and AllegoryDivine ComedyVita NuovaConvivioDe MonarchiaLetter to Can GrandeSchool of the stil

nuovistsHermetic nature of

imagery and diction

Figure of Beatrice as supreme metaphorComplete identity

between Beatrice and miraculous salvation

Perfect eloquence between thought, word, and BEING

Literal SymbolNo reader can

understand the identity,

Beatrice becomes metonomy to the reader

Metaphor is identical

Metanomy is partial

Problem of movement between metaphor and metonomy

BoccaccioOne of the greatest

intellectual scholars of Europe

First Professor of Dante studies

Friend of PetrarchChampion of

VernacularDecameronGenealogy Gentile

Gods

Critique and Admiration of DanteAnxiety about

mysticism in post plague world

AntifeminismMore Ovidian than

VirgilianHistory and Ethical

burdens of literatureDifferent vision for

vernacular

Vico and the EnlightenmentDeveloped system of

trope, expanded by Kenneth Burke

MetaphorMetonomySynecdocheIrony(Note Parallel to

Plato’sCosmology)

Nineteenth CenturyRise of hermeneuticsPhenomenologyAesthetics (from

Kant)William JamesSchleimacherRomanticismVictorianism

20th Century StructuralismNew emphasis on

anthropology and culture

Combines with phenomenology

Combines with “grammar” of literary theory (sounds like Aristotle)

Levi-Strauss

And Roland Barthes

Formalism and New CriticismBakhtin and Russian Formalism

Eliot and New Criticism

Psychoanalytic CriticismJung, FreudTheory of Archetypes Narrating Ego

Lacan, Kristeva

DeconstructionYale SchoolHeidegger inspiredDerridaDeManJ. Hillis MillerGeoffrey HartmanHarold Bloom

Denies the stability of language and forces a reconsideration of all theories of literary language

Destruction of Aesthetic and Ethical Values to literature

Reaction to Holocaust

Complicity with Nazi agenda discovered in late ’80’s

Descent into cultural studies (Foucault)

Text as Trope: AllusionCultural

appropriatione.g. Greek into Roman

Ovid—MetamorphosesVirgil—Aeneid

Virgil and Dante Have mercy on me," cried I out

aloud, "Spirit! or living man! whate'er thou be." He answered: "Now not man, man once I was, And born of Lombard parents, Mantuans both By country, when the power of Julius yet Was scarcely firm. At Rome my life was past, Beneath the mild Augustus, in the time Of fabled deities and false. A bard Was I, and made Anchises' upright son The subject of my song, who came from Troy, When the flames prey'd on Ilium's haughty towers.

Dante and Virgil"And art thou then that Virgil,

that well - spring, From which such copious floods of eloquence Have issued?" I with front abash'd replied. "Glory and light of all the tuneful train! May it avail me, that I long with zeal Have sought thy volume, and with love immense Have conn'd it o'er. My master thou, and guide! Thou he from whom alone I have derived That style, which for its beauty into fame Exalts me. See the beast, from whom I fled.