The Role of Metaphor in the Stylistic Rendition of Gogol's Dead Souls
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THE ROLE OF METAPHOR IN THE STYLISTIC RENDITION OF GOGOL'S DEAD SOULS G. N.Adam* Abstract Metaphor is probably the most useful linguistic tool in creative and imaginative literature. This is especially so with Gogol's Dead Souls. From micro images depicted in the submerged metaphor, compound metaphor, implicit metaphor and allusions, metaphorical images in the novel extend to straddle entire supra phrasal units. This paper argues that a deeper understanding ofthe metaphor is necessaryfor a better appreciation ofDead Souls which is one extended metaphor of the road. Gogol himselfdescribes it as a no3Ma (poem) because ofits complex and elevated thoughts encapsulated mostly in the use of the metaphor. 1. Introduction Gogol's epic novel Dead Souls has been universally exalted as a magnificent literary edifice and variously described as grotesque and absurd. The language of the story is humorously eccentric and flows in stylistic tandem with the lurid absurdity of the wide variety of characters strewn along the entire narration. As one episode flows into another, the author manages to arrest and keep the attention of the reader through a fresh and unique manipulation of language resources. This linguistic uniqueness manifests itself in the often unexpected imagery, the creative and imaginative use of tropes, all of which are embedded in a facetious account of events and the description of the characters behind them. The stylistic richness of Dead Souls is especially expressed in the abundant use of such tropes as irony, metaphor, simile, hyperbole and antonomasia. This paper singles out metaphor for special analysis because of all the tropes it is probably the most useful linguistic tool in imaginative or creative literature, and in Dead Souls it is one of the most potent mediums through which the reader comes into direct contact with the distinctive power ofimagination ofRussia's most enigmatic author. •Dr. G. N. Adam is a Lecturer in the Department of Modem Languages, University of Ghana, Legon 53 2. Background perspective on tropes When a reader encounters an unfamiliar word, or a word which has been used in an unfamiliar context, the first point of call to ascertain the meaning of the encountered word is the dictionary. This is because the dictionary is the place where he can find the semantic structure of the word or the totality ofits meaning in its diversity. The meaning that is registered in the dictionary is usually referred to as the logical or primary meaning. However in some peculiar instances a word may be used in a particular context which makes the said word to assume a type of meaning not recorded in the dictionary as part of the semantic structure of the word. In this instance, the dictionary will be of little use. In linguistics, this is referred to as contextual meaning, and though not fixed in the dictionary, it is nevertheless not independent of the dictionary meaning. This is illustrated in the use of the word sat in the following sentences. I. He was offered a chair, and as he sat down, he noticed something awkward about the gentleman on the other side of the table. 2. He sat for his constituency for two years during the Second republic. In sentence 1, the verb sat simply means seating oneself with the help of the pair of protuberances on the lower section at the rear of the body. In this particular example sat has been used in its dictionary meaning. The same verb in sentence 2 is used to mean a parliamentarian. This latter meaning is entirely dependent on the context and cannot exist without it. This is why it is referred to as contextual meaning. Here the context is provided by the words republic and to a lesser degree by the word constituency. A close observation of both sentences will reveal that there is an inherent association between the usage of the word sat in both instances. Being a parliamentarian means among other things, literally sitting through parliamentary sessions. It is a confirmation of the fact that the contextual meaning will always be in a dependent relationship with the dictionary meaning even though it may always be in a detached juxtaposition. The degree to which the contextual 54 Legan Journal of the HUMANITIES Volume 19 (2008) meaning is detached from the dictionary meaning is of a considerably wide variation. When the latitude of the variation between the two meanings is of such degree that the reader notices a deviation from the generally accepted logical meaning, then we register a trope, or what in Russian linguistics is referred to as cmwtucmu'-tecKoe cpeocmeo or stylistic device. The resultant trope is determined by the level of interaction between the primary dictionary meaning and the contextual meaning of the said word. When the name of one object is used as a substitute for another object on the basis ofthe logical correspondence between the said objects, we register a metonymy. For example stool and skin are symbols representing the chieftaincy institution in Ghana. On the other hand when an author uses a word or words whose intended meaning is directly contradictory of the usual sense associated with the word or set of words, then what we perceive is irony. In the following example the word present is used in an ironic sense in which its primary meaning is inconsistent with the general sense of the utterance. 'You are a scoundrel!' cried Chichikov, throwing up his hands, and he went up so close to him that Selifan stepped back a little, afraid of getting a present from his master. A present is something which should elicit gratitude and not fear. Its use here is contradictory ofwhat the reader would anticipate. Thirdly when an author succeeds in establishing a semantic congruence in terms of properties, function or quality between two objectively · dissimilar objects or phenomena, then it is a case of metaphor. In the following sentence the words clouds, key, riddle, are all used in their metaphorical meanings. If anything was capable of bringing Gogol down from the clouds in which he seemed to have lost G. N. Adam 55 himself in the search for the key of what he considered to be 'the riddle of his existence', it was his encounter with the censors from whom he had to obtain permission for the publication of the first part ofhis novel.' Googol in his lifetime had set himself the most arduous of tasks in which he saw himself as the liberator of Russia, a country he believed was looking up to him for salvation. This mindset divorced him from reality sending him into the clouds. The reference made to the key has to do with the solution to Gogol's complex and yet unanswered challenge, alternatively referred to here as a riddle. When an author uses a trope, he intends it to compel the reader to take notice of its presence and to engage him or her to co-experience the events and episodes as they unfold. Quite apart from this he also intends that the trope would arouse in a unique way the reader's aesthetic imagination. And as Leech (1981 :28) observes, this type of imagination 'takes the form of surprising a reader into a fresh awareness of, and sensitivity to, the linguistic medium which is normally taken for granted as an "automatized" background of communication'. 3. A theoretical insight into metaphor This paper is premised on the understanding that metaphor is basically a linguistic phenomenon. We are making this clarification because of a recent paradigm shift towards the cognitive dimensions of metaphor attributable mainly to Lakoff (1980). His landmark work relates to what has come to be known as the Conceptual Metaphor Theory. This theory postulates that metaphor is directly associated with the thought process, the matrix from which idealized cognitive models are formed and that verbal metaphors subsequently emerge to express the results of the thought process. In other words metaphor is primarily a conceptual category and only secondarily a matter of language. This conceptual view of the metaphor is also the opinion ofBlack (1979:39) who had earlier argued that metaphors 'could be "cognitive instruments'', indispensable for perceiving connections that, once perceived, are then truly present". On his part Crisp (2003: 105) takes 56 Legan Journal of the HUMANITIES Volume 19 (2008) note of this cognitive predisposition towards metaphor but stresses the 'need to pay more attention to the details ofits expression, linguistic or otherwise' especially in the language of literature. This is also the opinion of Charteris-Black (2006) who, while acknowledging the conceptual dimension of metaphor, focuses his attention on its hetorical properties. Essentially one of metaphor's fundamental communicative functions is to provide an alternative linguistic mechanism for expressing ideas. Metaphor does this by making associations between two entities the tenor and the vehicle which, from an objective point of view, are conceptually far removed from each other. The tenor is the subject of discussion to which attributes are ascribed while the vehicle is the source of the borrowed attributes (Leech, 1969). Lakoff (1980) substitutes the notion tenor and vehicle with the terms target and source. It follows from this that there must necessarily exist, even if at the level of perception, some identical reference points between the tenor and the vehicle. In other words even though these two entities have nothing in common, the writer uses his imagination to establish a certain type of logical identity between them and refers the reader's imaginative mind to the overt characteristics of the phenomenon whose features. constitute the core of the metaphorical meaning. Lakoff (1987b:3 84) calls these transferred characteristics 'metaphorical entailments.' In the sentence - mining companies are profit hyenas - the tenor is represented by mining companies while hyena is the vehicle.