Conceptual Container Metaphors and Entrapment in Woolf's Mrs Dalloway

This paper deals with conceptual container metaphors in the novel Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. The study is based on the conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff and Johnson, Metaphors we Live by), as well as on its extended versions which have contributed to the study of conceptual metaphor in literar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPrimerjalna književnost Vol. 41; no. 3; p. 141
Main Authors Stamatović, Milica Vuković, Bratić, Vesna
Format Journal Article
LanguageSlovenian
Published Ljubljana Slovenian Comparative Literature Association/Slovensko Drustvo za Primerjalno Knjizevnost 01.11.2018
Subjects
British & Irish literature
Conceptual metaphor
English literature
Language
Linguistics
Literature
Metaphor
Novels
Studies
Theory
Woolf, Virginia (1882-1941)
Writers
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Summary:This paper deals with conceptual container metaphors in the novel Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. The study is based on the conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff and Johnson, Metaphors we Live by), as well as on its extended versions which have contributed to the study of conceptual metaphor in literary texts, as proposed by Werth (Text Worlds) and Tsur ("Lakoff's Roads"). The focus is on container metaphors suggesting entrapment and containment, identified both through rapid conceptualisation (identification by means of the immediate context) and its delayed counterpart (metaphors discovered bearing in mind the entire text of the novel). We argue that container metaphors in the novel combine into a metaphoric web permeating the entire body of the novel and defining all the characters. This undercurrent of metaphors helps create an atmosphere of entrapment.
ISSN:0351-1189
2591-1805