'Moments of Punctuation': Metonymy and Ellipsis in Tim O'Brien

From Aristotle to Roman Jakobson and beyond, metaphor's status as the pre-eminent literary trope has been accepted largely without question. If the characteristic force of metaphor lies in the way it widens the gap between language and event, it is possible that metaphor's 'rule'...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Yearbook of English studies 2001-01, Vol.31, p.74-92
Main Author: Lustig, T. J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Authors
Courage
Criticism and interpretation
Ellipsis
Jakobson, Roman
Literary criticism
Metaphors
Metonymy
Narratives
O'Brien, Tim (American writer)
Poetry
Punctuation
War zones
Words
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:From Aristotle to Roman Jakobson and beyond, metaphor's status as the pre-eminent literary trope has been accepted largely without question. If the characteristic force of metaphor lies in the way it widens the gap between language and event, it is possible that metaphor's 'rule' may be weakened when language and event collide. The article argues that it is in the light of such collisions, dislocations, and displacements rather than in the more measured figurings of the symbolic, that the work of the Vietnam novelist Tim O'Brien can best be read.
ISSN:0306-2473
2222-4289
DOI:10.1353/yes.2001.0076