Post #5: Metaphoric Criticism

Due by the class period on Tuesday, March 27th

All language has metaphorical aspects. Just think about everyday texts that construct
our thinking from the early years of our childhood, and explore the possibility of using metaphoric criticism as a lens to a text of your choosing in the Critical Essay #2. Respond to the following based on your reading of our textbook and our class discussions.  You are allowed to use a text that you’ve used for another blog posting (except the one you have used for Neo-Aristotelian criticism) and keep exploring it as a possibility for Critical Essay #2. Enumerate your responses.

  1. Examine your artifact for a general sense of its dimensions and context. This step will help you and us get the big picture and try to understand the context. Write a few sentences presenting your findings about the artifact’s rhetorical situation.
  2. Next try to isolate some metaphors that emerge from the discourse in the artifact. Note that the text might include explicit and implied metaphors.
  3. Sort some of the metaphors you’ve found into groups according to vehicle and tenor. Look for patterns; focus; themes. What are the vehicles? How do they relate?
  4. Discover an explanation for the artifact (ideology, assumptions, etc). You will use the principles of frequency and intensity to discover significance. For now, just write a few sentences that reflect your preliminary thinking about the implications of your findings.
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