Contagious Metaphor

The metaphor of contagion pervades critical discourse across the humanities, the medical sciences, and the social sciences. It appears in such terms as 'social contagion' in psychology, 'financial contagion' in economics, 'viral marketing' in business, and even 'cultural contagion' in anthropology. In the twenty-first century, contagion, or 'thought contagion' has become a byword for creativity and a fundamental process by which knowledge and ideas are communicated and taken up, and resonates with André Siegfried's observation that 'there is a striking parallel between the spreading of germs and the spreading of ideas'. In __Contagious Metaphor__, Peta Mitchell offers an innovative, interdisciplinary study of the metaphor of contagion and its relationship to the workings of language. Examining both metaphors of contagion and metaphor __as__ contagion, __Contagious Metaphor__ suggests a framework through which the emergence and often epidemic-like reproduction of metaphor can be better understood. Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: Due Preparations Chapter 1 Contagious Metaphor Contagion as metaphor Metaphor as contagion Aristotle’s theory of metaphor Metaphor as ‘lie’ in the empirical tradition: Hobbes and Locke Metaphor reconsidered: Vico, Rousseau and Nietzsche Interactional and cognitive approaches to metaphor: Richards and Black Lakoff and Johnson’s ‘conceptual metaphor theory’ Nietzsche ‘rediscovered’: Metaphor, mimetic contagion and the linguistic turn in Continental philosophy Chapter 2 Pestilence and Poison Winds: Literary Contagions and the Endurance of Miasma Theory The forgetting of air Miasma and contagion from the Hippocratic scholars to germ theory Plague narratives, the troping of air and wind, and Daniel Defoe’s Due Preparations for the Plague Pestilence and poison winds: Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice Communicative contagion: Albert Camus’s The Plague An aerography of contagion: Janette Turner Hospital’s Due Preparations for the Plague Chapter 3 The French fin de siècle and the Birth of Social Contagion Theory Social contagion at the fin de siècle: Le Bon, Tarde and Sighele Le Bon, the contagious crowd and the popularization of crowd psychology Tarde, imitation and the contagion of example Sighele and the nineteenth-century pre-history of social contagion theory An eighteenth-century precursor: Philippe Hecquet and the concept of ‘moral contagion’ From moral contagion to the ‘contagion of example’ Chapter 4 The Contagion of Example Erasmus, the Adages and ‘contagio morum’ By generation or imitation: Pelagius, Augustine and the fifth-century debate over ‘contagious sin’ Contagiosa res: Augustine and the pears The debate replayed: Erasmus and Calvin on Rom. 5:12 The ‘contagion of example’ in early modern discourse From ‘moral’ to ‘mental’ contagion Chapter 5Infectious Ideas: Richard Dawkins, Meme Theory and the Politics of Metaphor Selfish genes, selfish memes Memes, genes and critiques of The Selfish Gene The Lamarckian meme The contagious meme Memes and metaphors Chapter 6 Networks of Contagion Contagion and the ‘network society’: The rise of ‘network epidemiology’ Intersecting networks of contagion in Soderbergh’s Contagion Epidemiologies of the network: Contagion and network theory from tarde to financial contagion and viral network theory Financial contagion: Between models and metaphors Digital contagion and ‘viral’ network theory Coda: Language is a virus Notes Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Bibliography Index The metaphor of contagion pervades critical discourse across the humanities, the medical sciences, and the social sciences. It appears in such terms as 'social contagion' in psychology, 'financial contagion' in economics, 'viral marketing' in business, and even 'cultural contagion' in anthropology. In the twenty-first century, contagion, or 'thought contagion' has become a byword for creativity and a fundamental process by which knowledge and ideas are communicated and taken up, and resonates with Andre Siegfried's observation that 'there is a striking parallel between the spreading of germs and the spreading of ideas'. In Contagious Metaphor, Peta Mitchell offers an innovative, interdisciplinary study of the metaphor of contagion and its relationship to the workings of language. Examining both metaphors of contagion and metaphor as contagion, Contagious Metaphor suggests a framework through which the emergence and often epidemic-like reproduction of metaphor can be better understood Contagious Metaphor -- Pestilence And Poison Winds: Literary Contagions And The Endurance Of Miasma Theory -- The French Fin De Siècle And The Birth Of Social Contagion Theory -- The Contagion Of Example -- Infectious Ideas: Dawkins, Meme Theory, And The Politics Of Metaphor -- Networks Of Contagion. Peta Mitchell. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.