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19 - Metaphor and learning activity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Bernd Fichtner
Affiliation:
University of Siegen
Yrjö Engeström
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
Reijo Miettinen
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
Raija-Leena Punamäki
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
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Summary

Introduction

The novel Ardiente paciencia by the Chilean writer Antonio Skarmeta is actually a novel about metaphors. The plot centers on the story of a friendship between Mario Jimenez, the son of a fisherman in Isla Negra, and the poet Pablo Neruda. Mario, a young man who does seasonal work as a postman, delivers the mail to Neruda daily and always brings his problems along. At the first encounter of the two, a dialogue concerning the question of what a metaphor really is ensues:

Mario placed his hand over his heart in an attempt to control the wild palpitations. He was sure his chest would burst open right there. But he pulled himself together, and with one impertinent finger shaking just inches away from his emeritus client's nose, said, “Do you think that everything in the world, I mean everything, like the wind, the ocean, trees, mountains, fire, animals, houses, deserts, the rain …”

“Now you can say ‘etcetera.’”

“…all the etceteras. Do you think the whole world is a metaphor for something?” Neruda's mouth gaped and his robust chin seemed ready to drop right off his face.

(Skarmeta, 1987, pp. 15–16)

Here the metaphor is not a stylistic embellishment of rhetoric. Nor is it an abnormal grammatical expression or phrase. On the contrary, the entire world itself is a metaphor for something. The basis of this view of metaphors is the ability to see something as something else. In this chapter, I concentrate on this ability.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1999

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