In 1956, Roman Jakobson put metaphor and metonymy on equal footing, theoretically, when he coupled them. He noted, nonetheless, that metonymy was not attended to as it should have been, and called this a “contiguity disorder.” This study attempts to understand what this disorder might be, and does so by shifting focus away from the couple, metaphor and metonymy, to that of metonymy and synecdoche. It is here, between these two “lesser” tropes, that one can see how metonymy, the trope of contiguity, or the trope of a certain arbitrariness, an untouched touching—a cold intimacy—seems to threaten the desire for wholeness, as represented by synecdoche, with the result that we see how synecdoche attempts to suppress contiguity because of the disorder it creates. This tension takes on a more dramatic twist when synecdoche (and not metaphor) is gendered as male, and metonymy, female.

Metonymy, Synecdoche, and the Disorders of Contiguity

WHITSITT, SAMUEL PORTER
2013

Abstract

In 1956, Roman Jakobson put metaphor and metonymy on equal footing, theoretically, when he coupled them. He noted, nonetheless, that metonymy was not attended to as it should have been, and called this a “contiguity disorder.” This study attempts to understand what this disorder might be, and does so by shifting focus away from the couple, metaphor and metonymy, to that of metonymy and synecdoche. It is here, between these two “lesser” tropes, that one can see how metonymy, the trope of contiguity, or the trope of a certain arbitrariness, an untouched touching—a cold intimacy—seems to threaten the desire for wholeness, as represented by synecdoche, with the result that we see how synecdoche attempts to suppress contiguity because of the disorder it creates. This tension takes on a more dramatic twist when synecdoche (and not metaphor) is gendered as male, and metonymy, female.
2013
118
9788862924641
Samuel Porter, Whitsitt
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/311316
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