Original scientific paper
The Metaphoric and the Patriarchal in Women's Writing
Ljiljana Ina Gjurgjan
Abstract
This paper aims to explore some uses of metaphors in Women's writing. Its theoretical starting point is the postmodern contention that each text is not an original and creative production of new
meanings but rather an authorial re-arrangement of current discursive practices, in which traces of social signification are inscribed. In this process, metaphoric has an important role, since a
metaphor functions as a metonymy of a value system, which does not have to be identical with the one inscribed in the discursive level of the text. By looking into some texts written by modern Writers,
Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath, as well as the turn of the century American writer, Charlotte Perkins Gilrnan, we shall examine the relation between the metaphoric and the discursive in their
texts. Our main concern will be the question whether the metaphoric in those texts subverts the discourse, pointing to subconscious desires or, on the other hand, to the author's inability to
overcome the cultural stereotypes of her or his time.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
120288
URI
Publication date:
15.9.1997.
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