Startseite How Do Metaphors Emerge from Cultural Images? On Hermeneutics of Sweetness
Artikel
Lizenziert
Nicht lizenziert Erfordert eine Authentifizierung

How Do Metaphors Emerge from Cultural Images? On Hermeneutics of Sweetness

  • Anton Vydra ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 13. Januar 2025

Abstract

The paper focuses on the relations between hermeneutics, spirituality and imagination. The theoretical frame is formed by the notion of imaginative sets. These sets of dominant cultural images inscribe themselves into our understanding of the meanings of texts or spiritual contents. One such imaginative schema has undoubtedly been the image of reading as nourishment and the subsequent image of reading as pleasure or sweetness. The latter will be used here as an example of how from cultural images emerge metaphors by assigning certain meaning to them. The basis of these images goes back to early Christian times and to the metaphor of learning as eating. Medieval hermeneutics adopted these images according to its cultural forms. However, the use of the metaphor of sweetness in the Middle Ages differs from the use of the similar metaphors in the early Christianity because of the changed meaning attributed to the image. The imaginative set of sweetness reached their peak with Cusanus, but it appeared sporadically afterwards and is still active today when people say about nutritious reading or the savouring of texts. Imaginative sets thus not only have their history of petrified metaphors, but also the history of reactivations of images.


Corresponding author: Anton Vydra, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy and Arts, Trnava University in Trnava, Hornopotočná 23, 91843 Trnava, Slovakia, E-mail:

Award Identifier / Grant number: APVV-20-0137

References

Albertson, David. 2014. Mathematical Theologies Nicholas of Cusa and the Legacy of Thierry of Chartres. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199989737.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar

Augustine (Saint). 2008. Letters, Vol. 1 (1–82), trans. by W. Parsons. The Fathers of the Church, Vol. 12. Washington: The Catholic University of America Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Augustine (St.). 1912. Confessions I, trans. by W. Watts. Latin-English Edition, The Loeb Classical Library 26. London: William Heinemann, New York: The Macmillan Company.Suche in Google Scholar

Augustine. 1887. ‘City of God, Christian Doctrine’, trans. by M. Dods, and J. F. Shaw. In: Ph. Schaff (ed.): Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co.Suche in Google Scholar

Augustine. 2019. On the Happy Life. St. Augustine’s Cassiciacum Dialogues, Volume 2, trans. by M. P. Foley. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.10.12987/9780300244885Suche in Google Scholar

Barthes, Roland. 1973. Le plaisir du texte. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.Suche in Google Scholar

Barthes, Roland. 2003. La préparation du roman I et II. Notes de cours et de séminaires au Collège de France, 1978–1979 et 1979–1980. Paris: Seuil/IMEC.10.4000/leportique.586Suche in Google Scholar

Bergson, Henri. 2007. Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience. Paris: Quadrige/PUF.Suche in Google Scholar

Bredin, Hugh. 1992. “The Literal and the Figurative.” Philosophy 67 (259): 69–80. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0031819100039838.Suche in Google Scholar

Bynum, Caroline Walker. 1988. Holy Feast and Holy Fast. The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Clement of Alexandria. 2008. Christ the Educator, trans. by S. P. Wood. The Fathers of the Church, Vol. 23. Washington: The Catholic University of America Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Curtius, Robert Ernst. 2013. European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, trans. by W. R. Trask. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Durand, Gilbert. 1999. The Anthropological Structures of the Imaginary, trans. M. Sankey, and J. Hatten. Brisbane: Boombana Publications.Suche in Google Scholar

Floss, Pavel. 2020. The Philosophy of Nicholas of Cusa. An Introduction into His Thinking. Basel: Schwabe Verlag.10.24894/b10332Suche in Google Scholar

Holberton, Paul. 2019. “Honesta voluptas: The Renaissance Justification for Enjoyment of the Natural World.” In Green Worlds in Early Modern Italy. Art and the Verdant Earth, edited by K. H. Goodchild, A. Oettinger, and L. Prosperetti, 69–86. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.10.1017/9789048535866.004Suche in Google Scholar

Hugh of St. Victor. 1961. Didascalion, trans. by Jerome Taylor. New York, London: Columbia University Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Eriugena, John Scotus. 1987. Periphyseon (The divison of nature), trans. by I. P. Sheldon-Williams. Montréal: Bellarmin, Washington: Dumbarton Oaks.Suche in Google Scholar

Kearney, Richard. 2015. “The Wager of Carnal Hermeneutics.” In Carnal Hermeneutics, edited by R. Kearney, 15–56. New York: Fordham University Press.10.5422/fordham/9780823265886.003.0001Suche in Google Scholar

Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. 1980. “Conceptual Metaphor in Everyday Language.” The Journal of Philosophy 77 (8): 453–486. https://doi.org/10.2307/2025464.Suche in Google Scholar

Melchior-Bonnet, Sabine. 1994. Histoire du Miroir. Paris: Imago.Suche in Google Scholar

Nejeschleba, Tomáš, and Roman Kucsa. 2020. Bernard z Clairvaux. Chiméra svého století. Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci.Suche in Google Scholar

Pliny. 1967. Natural History, Vol. III, Books 8–11. Latin-English Edition, The Loeb Classical Library 353. London: Harvard University Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Scheler, Max. 1991. Die Stellung des Menschen in Kosmos. Bonn: Bouvier Verlag.Suche in Google Scholar

Smith, Dennis E. 2003. From Symposium to Eucharist. The Banquet in the Early Christian World. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Stano, Simona. 2024. “Nurturing Meaning: Food, Myth, and Signification.” Signata 15. [online]. https://doi.org/10.4000/127wo.Suche in Google Scholar

von Kues, Nikolaus. 1967. Werke. Band 2. Ed. Paul Wilpert. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Suche in Google Scholar

Vydra, Anton. 2022. “The Role of Imagination in the History of Spiritual Experiences.” Spirituality Studies 8 (2): 14–21.Suche in Google Scholar

Vydra, Anton. 2023a. “Eriugena’s Angels: A Case Study on a Role of Imagination in Spirituality.” In The Modern Experience of the Religious, edited by N. Bravo, and J. Stewart, 139–160. Leiden, Boston: Brill.10.1163/9789004544604_008Suche in Google Scholar

Vydra, Anton. 2023b. Hermés bez Krídel. Kultúrne Obrazy Kontinentálnej Hermeneutiky. Praha: Togga.Suche in Google Scholar

Vydra, Anton. 2024. “Alimentary Images as Metaphor of Education.” Studies in Philosophy and Education 43 (5): 499–514. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-024-09940-9.Suche in Google Scholar

Wunenburger, Jean-Jacques. 2019. Le Sacré. Paris: PUF.10.3917/puf.wunen.2019.01Suche in Google Scholar

Wunenburger, Jean-Jacques. 2016. L’Imaginaire. Paris: PUF.Suche in Google Scholar

Received: 2024-10-23
Accepted: 2024-12-18
Published Online: 2025-01-13
Published in Print: 2025-01-29

© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Heruntergeladen am 17.11.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/humaff-2024-0106/html
Button zum nach oben scrollen