Beyond a Comparison of Two Distinct Things; or, What Students of Literature Gain from a Cognitive Linguistic Approach to Metaphor

Referring to data from senior seminars involving textual analysis of novels and short stories, the author discusses the advantages undergraduates enjoy studying literature through a cognitive linguistic approach. Some methodology described contrasts traditional views, which posit objective and preexisting similarities in metaphor, with cognitive linguistic views of nonobjective, non-pre-existing similarities. The latter facilitates close readings of texts, because metaphorical systems—theoretically traceable to embodied and/or cultural experiences—intuitively make sense to students. The author shares pedagogical implications such as students' heightened awareness of language (e.g., detecting bias in metaphor) as well as the linguistic and classroom methodologies used.