The Mind as a Novel Metaphor. (2003)

Abstract When teaching novels in graduate and undergraduate courses can miss many of complex interrelationships that occur between various elements of a story. An author's craft is to bring together divergent features to achieve an overall outcome within mind of reader. The subtle maneuvers employed by novelists throughout their works often defy linear analyses promoted by simply applying traditional literary devices to study of novels. A dynamic, holistic approach to novel is needed where complex ebbs and flows of motives, literary elements and authorial devices are accounted for in a naturalistic way. Phillips and Huntley's (1995) Story Mind is a metaphorical structure that can be applied to novels to uncover complex interactions of components that develop a complete novel. The present article offers a brief review of theory's dimensions. Introduction All novels and stories possess some type of story structure. Even works that are marked by a free-flowing, stream of consciousness like James Joyce's (1922) Ulysses, William Faulkner's (1930) As I Lay Dying or, more recently, Umberto Eco's (2002) Baudolino in which stories emerge from a narrative perspective at some point in novels, an overall structure can be identified in hindsight. Morner and Rausch (1991) define literary structure as, the design or arrangement of parts of a work of literature to form a unified whole; planned framework or 'architecture' of a literary (p. 213). The architecture is interpreted and most often presented chronologically or logically in narrative works. However, this paper suggests an alternative view to story that can give students of literature a more complete lens into parts of a piece that make it whole. The approach advocated here is a metaphorical view of literature, and it proposes an exciting schema for analyzing novels to determine, most of all, if they are complete. Metaphors in Literature Metaphors serve a distinct purpose in organizing our mental worlds. At their essence, metaphors impose a familiar architecture upon concepts or ideas that, for various reasons, need clarification or interpretation. The process of clarifying and/or interpreting stories is a major responsibility for those who teach literature to graduate students, undergraduates and grade-school students. Oftentimes, students grasp major theme of a novel without recognizing contributory parts that work together to build that theme. macro-conception of literature is insufficient, on its own, for students of literature if goal is to teach author's craft on an elemental level. Conversely, students who attend to literary devices at work within a piece without being able to articulate how they work in concert to achieve an author's goal are guilty of a myopia that can be characterized as a strict micro-conception of literature. A unifying system for teaching literature is needed for these two limited perspectives of literature that present themselves as hindrances to students' grasping completeness of literature. Structural approaches to text that follow chronological or logical paths are ripe with possibility of failing to recognize big picture or point out parts that work together to construct overall meaning of a work. The unifying quality of metaphors is described in Metaphors and Symbols: Forays into Language (Bartel, 1983). The author asserts that metaphors are an extension of natural dichotomies present throughout nature and in man-made disciplines. To illustrate point he states: This ultimate unity of all things is not just a vision of poets but a fact of life. Fractions are possible because we have whole numbers, analysis has its counterparts in synthesis, questions imply answers, causes have effects and effects have causes. Unity is implied in all our activities that involve dividing, combining, classifying, and organizing--taxonomies, typologies, paradigms, flow charts, computer programs, Linnean categories in biology, school curricula, and on and on. …