Metaphor is a central concept in literary studies, but it is also prevalent in everyday language and speech. Recent literary theories such as postmodernism and deconstruction have transformed the study of the text and revolutionized our thinking about metaphor. In this fascinating volume, David Punter: establishes the classical background of the term from its philosophical roots to the religious and political tradition of metaphor in the East relates metaphor to the public realms of culture and politics and the way in which these influence the literary examines metaphor in relation to literary theory, philosophy, psychoanalysis and postcolonial studies illustrates his argument with specific examples from western and eastern literature and poetry. This comprehensive and engaging book emphasizes the significance of metaphor to literary studies, as well as its relevance to cultural studies, linguistics and philosophy.

First published in 1972, this work examines the complex concept of metaphor. It defines the term by placing the various key ideas about the nature of metaphor in their literary and social context, and in doing so, it traces the developing history of the concept. This account has considerable range, beginning with Aristotle and ending with the work of modern linguist and anthropologists. From this analysis emerge two opposed yet complementary ideas: the classical view of metaphor, which sees metaphor as a detachable device imported into language, and the romantic view, which sees metaphor as inseparable from language. This book will be of interest to those studying English literature and language.