This paper explores the mapping process which is used to conceptualize trauma in one of the post-9/11 novels, namely DeLillo’s Falling Man. The paper focuses on how the traumatic experiences are represented through metaphors. Although many previous studies have attempted stylistic investigations to DeLillo’s novel, very little research approached its metaphorical language. As far as trauma experience is concerned, most of the previous studies discussed these experiences thematically (Kensiton and Quinn, 2008; Gray, 2012; Pozorski, 2014; Keeble, 2014). This study, therefore, offers a stylistic examination of the metaphors of trauma which are used to communicate the negative mental experiences in this novel. It examines the conceptualization of traumatic experiences encountered by the main characters as they are exposed to disturbing events. The study applies insights from Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980; 2003) to selected metaphors from the novel. The application of conceptual metaphor theory allows better understanding of how the abstract state of trauma is conceptualized and communicated through the course of the novel. The experience of trauma is represented variously in this novel, sometimes it is communicated through idiosyncratic metaphors (Moncef, 2016) and sometimes it is represented through using conventional metaphors. The study also examines the mapping process to see how conceptual structures are selected from different source domains and mapped onto the domain of the abstract state of trauma to convey the effects of these distressing experiences.
This paper addresses the theme of Keats and place in which I explore the problem of Keats and no place. The existence of “no place” is a key element in the poetry of John Keats. One of the obvious manifestations of “no place” is the use of nothingness which occupies a particular symbolic significance in his works. In my paper, I argue that Keats’s poems show evidence that the poet featured nothingness as a place which is characterized by emptiness and void where things fall and disappear forever. The abstract state of nothingness is represented as a hateful and undesired destination that the poet does not want to be placed in. The paper focuses on the representations of nothingness in three selected poems: “Sleep and Poetry,” “Endymion,” and “When I Have Fears,” respectively. In these poems, Keats constructs nothingness as a “locus” which is associated with negativity and passivity. My paper suggests another possible reading of Keats’s poems in relation to the themes of place and space.
This paper attempts to analyse the metaphorical representation of immigration in Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel The Namesake (2003). It aims to explore the way in which the process of immigration is conceptualized in terms of experiences from other domains. Lahiri as the second generation of immigrants is brought up in the family that experienced the process of immigration. However, the notion of immigration among Lahiri’s critics is explored, but a few number of researches approached its metaphorical language, whereas the current paper investigates immigration in terms of the stylistic investigation of immigration metaphors in the light of cognitive approach. This study also examines the mapping process, which is used to conceptualize immigration in the novel. It applies insights from Conceptual Metaphor Theory by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson to the linguistic expression that underlie conceptual metaphors that are selected from the novel. In addition, it identifies all the source domains that are used in the selected expressions to represent the target domain of immigration, through the mapping process. The immigration process in Lahiri’s The Namesake is compared to ‘ sort of lifelong pregnancy’, ‘perpetual wait’, ‘ constant burden’, ‘free’, and ‘ packing a pillow and a blanket’. The selection of the conceptual metaphor theory provides a deeper understanding of the way the process of immigration is represented.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.