engleski

Conceptual metaphors in Virginia Woolf's “To the Lighthouse”

Analyzing metaphor is one of the most frequent and basic undertakings of contemporary linguistics, whose goals include the better understanding of human language processing, formation and production. Being one of the most natural and basic conceptualization and knowledge structuring processes, metaphor is pervasive in everyday human thought and language activity. Its position in artistic and literary fields is, therefore, expectedly common, while its understanding often is not. The following research dealt with the conceptual metaphorical structure of Virginia Woolf’s novel “To the Lighthouse”. It provides a thorough analysis of the linguistic expressions centered on the element of light which stem from basic conceptual metaphors. The angle from which this subject was studied is conceptual metaphor theory based in cognitive linguistics. Metaphorical linguistic expressions with the word light have been chosen for this research because of their frequency in the text, for the deeper, non-literal meanings they bring to the narrative, and for the visual importance they have in structuring the novel’s written scenery, which relies on the artistic breakthroughs of Impressionism. The starting point of the research was the exploration of the light that creates the scenery in the novel, which is tightly bound to a light which comes from the characters. This light is most obviously described in connection to the main character—Mrs. Ramsay—making her the focal point of the narrative. This focalization is achieved by linguistic expressions stemming from conceptual metaphors of light. The aim of this research was to show, through conceptual metaphor theory, how the novel uses various metaphors with light in order to structure the narrative like a composition of a painting, in which the focus and main source of light is the character of Mrs. Ramsay. A total of forty metaphorical linguistic expressions were analyzed and grouped into four groups: KNOWING IS SEEING, MRS. RAMSAY AS LIGHT, LIGHT IS A PERSON and LIGHT DESCRIBED. The groups have shown that the non-literal linguistic expressions with the word light in the novel stem from basic conceptual metaphors, which explains how Woolf achieved in making light a character in the novel, as well as a structuring element. This research wanted to show that conceptual metaphor theory could be a valuable tool in unlocking metaphorical structures of literary texts, helping the reader reach a fuller understanding of the author’s implied, underlying meanings, hidden in a creative combination of conventional and non-conventional linguistic expressions.

cognitive poetics; conceptual metaphor; metaphors of light

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