WTEII: Metaphor in Language
Spring 2023
Taught By: Haley Hach
Section: A
CRN: 1214
Credits: 4
WRITING THE ESSAY II: METAPHOR IN LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT. Language is fossil poetry–James Geary. Historically, metaphor is often treated as a fanciful device—an imprecise or linguistic trick employed as manipulation, or worse, as laziness. This has never been the case! Let’s illuminate metaphor in all its guises. We cannot subtract metamorphic reason out of ourselves or our thought processes. Human beings utilize metaphors constantly, consistently, in language, speech, image, action and thought. In this course we’ll explore metaphors’ ancient structures. Together we’ll examine metaphoric leaps in logic, convenience, explanation and security. How do metaphors perform such heavy lifting? And how do they “work” with such admirable, eerie efficacy? We’ll read, discuss, write and explore derivatives of meaning: What do metaphors reveal about the mind and why? Class readings may involve First Love, by Ivan Turgenev, Women’s Weird: Strange Stories by Women, 1890-1940, Edited by Melissa Edmundson, How to Carry Water by Lucille Clifton, First Person Singular, by Haruki Murakami, Pandemic, by Slavoj Zizek along with separate essays by George Lakoff in Metaphors We Live By and I Is An Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How it Shapes the Way We See the World, by James Geary.
College: Eugene Lang College Lib Arts (LC)
Department: Lang College (LNGC)
Campus: New York City (GV)
Course Format: Seminar (R)
Modality: In-Person
Max Enrollment: 18
Seats Available: Yes
Status: Open*
* Status information is updated every few minutes. The status of this course may have changed since the last update. Open seats may have restrictions that will prevent some students from registering. Updated: 5:56pm 8/8/2022 EDT