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Metaphors we die by

  • April D Marshall

    April D. Marshall (b. 1974). Her research interests include Latin American literature, disease metaphors in literature, AIDS literature, and popular culture and disease. Her recent publications include ‘Portraying Plague: The Possibilities in Puenzo's La peste’ (forthcoming).

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Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 10. November 2006
Semiotica
Aus der Zeitschrift Band 2006 Heft 161

Abstract

Medicine and language have had a tumultuous relationship at best. The two fields inform and describe each other. The methods of each have been applied to the other at various times in history. The medical symptom and the linguistic sign have much in common and yet are not the same. Nonetheless, literature offers us a perspective on our cultural perceptions of certain realities and disease is unmistakably one of the most ambiguous of those realities. The unique combination of medical thought and linguistic expression present in literary metaphors incorporating or referring to illness reveals a conceptual understanding of health that informs our interpretation of related signifiers. This study is an attempt to identify and explore some of the most prevalent metaphors and metonymies related to disease and through the process, comprehend the way in which culture thinks about the more general concept of health.

About the author

April D Marshall

April D. Marshall (b. 1974). Her research interests include Latin American literature, disease metaphors in literature, AIDS literature, and popular culture and disease. Her recent publications include ‘Portraying Plague: The Possibilities in Puenzo's La peste’ (forthcoming).

Published Online: 2006-11-10
Published in Print: 2006-08-01

© Walter de Gruyter

Heruntergeladen am 18.9.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/SEM.2006.070/html
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