Metaphor and Shakespearean Drama: Unchaste Signification (Early Modern Literature in History)

Metaphor and Shakespearean Drama explores the fruitful and potentially unruly nature of metaphorical utterances in Shakespearean drama, with analyses of Othello , Titus Andronicus , King Henry IV Part 1 , Macbeth , Hamlet , and The Tempest. "Maria Fahey's provocative study of key metaphoric systems in six Shakespeare plays brilliantly demonstrates the embeddedness of metaphor in cultural, pragmatic, and historical circuits of meaning while suggesting how metaphors in performance can themselves motivate these very circuits. Grounded in a deep understanding of the theory of metaphor from Aristotle on, Fahey's exciting interpretations invert assumptions about what is literal and what is figurative, what is native and what is transported, by showing how words connected to a tissue of social discourses and performances become aware (even if their speaker is not) of the larger network of complicity within which the metaphor stands to account. This work is a rich resource for anyone interested in a discursive analysis of how Shakespeare's metaphors can become both figurative and performative at the same time."--Susanne Wofford, New York University, USA 'Maria Fahey's Metaphor and Shakespearean Drama, the first full-length study of Shakespeare and 'metaphor' in nearly a quarter-century, is a remarkable achievement. Although Fahey acknowledges that each of the six (illuminating) chapters devoted to individual plays 'may be read on its own, ' she (rightly) urges that they 'will make more sense in conjunction' with the general discussion of metaphor that opens the book. This tenaciously-argued discussion is indeed central to everything that follows and is in itself an important contribution to scholarship: not only does it demonstrate how Ricoeur and other modern theorists have misunderstood the nature and function of metaphor in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but also it shows, to use Fahey's words, 'how the plays reveal metaphor's power to transform the speech communities they bring to life.' Fahey, fully in command of the secondary and primary sources, writes with insight, clarity, and grace about very complicated matters. This impressive book will be of interest to scholars in general, not just to those who specialize in Shakespeare.' - Edward Tayler, Columbia University, USA 'This intelligent and penetrating book revisits the study of metaphor in Shakespeare, reading metaphor in the plays neither as imagery or ornament but instead as an unpredictable form of social action, powerful but not always positive, that can infiltrate speech communities by stealth and authorize unpredictable or irrational action. Bringing to light this performative dimension of metaphor, Fahey offers fresh readings of Shakespeare's plays.' - Lynne Magnusson, University of Toronto, Canada Metaphor And Shakespearean Drama Explores The Fruitful And Potentially€disorderly Nature Of Metaphorical Utterances In Shakespearean Drama. Borrowing Its Title From Henry Peacham's 1593 Warning That 'there Be No Uncleane Or Unchast[e] Signification Contained In The Metaphore, ' It Explores The Worry Expressed In Elizabethan Rhetoric Books That A Metaphor Might Beget Illegitimate Meanings. Shakespeare's Plays Demonstrate That A Metaphor Can Indeed Generate€unruly Meanings Which, Once Uttered, Have The Power To Transform A Community. Analyses Of Othello, Titus Andronicus, Macbeth, King Henry Iv Part 1, Hamlet, And The Tempest Demonstrate Various Aspects Of Metaphoric Performance. These€include Metaphor's Power To Import Discourses Into Speech Communities; Metaphor's Sacrificial Nature; The Relationship Between Metaphor And Equivocation; Metaphor's Carnivalesque Qualities; Dead Metaphor's Ability To Haunt Living Speech; And Metaphor's€ability To Circulate Unacknowledged Collective Fantasies. Unchaste Signification: Classical, Elizabethan, And Contemporary Theories Of Metaphor -- Proving Desdemona Haggard: Metaphor And Marriage In Othello -- Martyred Signs: Sacrifice And Metaphor In Titus Andronicus -- Imperfect Speech: Metaphor And Equivocation In Macbeth -- Base Comparisons: Figuring Royalty In King Henry Iv Part 1 -- Ears Of Flesh And Blood: Dead Metaphors And Ghostly Figures In Hamlet -- Strange Fish: Transport And Translation In The Tempest. Maria Franziska Fahey. Includes Index. Front Matter....Pages i-xvii “Unchaste Signification”: Classical, Elizabethan, and Contemporary Theories of Metaphor....Pages 1-21 Proving Desdemona Haggard: Metaphor and Marriage in Othello....Pages 22-48 “Martyred Signs”: Sacrifice and Metaphor in Titus Andronicus....Pages 49-73 Imperfect Speech: Equivocation and Metaphor in Macbeth....Pages 74-114 “Base Comparisons”: Figuring Royalty in King Henry IV Part 1....Pages 115-138 “Ears of Flesh and Blood”: Dead Metaphors and Ghostly Figures in Hamlet....Pages 139-158 “Strange Fish”: Transport and Translation in The Tempest....Pages 159-176 Back Matter....Pages 177-192 Cover 1 Metaphor and Shakespearean Drama 4 Contents 10 Figure 11 Acknowledgments 12 Preface 15 1 “Unchaste Signification” 19 2 Proving Desdemona Haggard: Metaphor and Marriage in Othello 40 3 “Martyred Signs”: Sacrifice and Metaphor in Titus Andronicus 67 4 Imperfect Speech: Equivocation and Metaphor in Macbeth 92 5 “Base Comparisons”: Figuring Royalty in King Henry IV Part 1 133 6 “Ears of Flesh and Blood”: Dead Metaphors and Ghostly Figures in Hamlet 157 7 “Strange Fish”: Transport and Translation in The Tempest 177 Works Cited 195 Index 205 This text explores the fruitful and potentially unruly nature of metaphorical utterances in Shakespearean drama, with analyses of Othello, Titus Andronicus, King Henry IV Part 1, Macbeth, Hamlet, and The Tempest