FROM THE MONARCHY TREE TO NATION: THE USE OF METAPHORS IN EARLY MODERN FRENCH POLITICAL DISCOURSE

The article examines three legal treatises written between the late 16th and late 18th centuries, whose authors used the language of metaphors, analyzing also the way this language was reflected in images. Both jurists and artists tried to demonstrate to their readers and spectators that society was unified and, at the same time, consisted of estates unequal in their status. For this purpose, metaphors of the human body, tree, army, and family were used. Over the period under discussion, the attitude towards metaphors changed significantly. Although the possibility of using the language of metaphors to adequately describe and know society was put into doubt more than once in the 17th and 18th centuries, contemporaries did not abandon this language. In the 18th century, many of the usual metaphors were rethought in Enlightenment literature, as well as in journalism and propaganda texts published on the eve of the French Revolution. The body metaphor received a new interpretation within the framework of the social contract concept, while the image of France as the king’s spouse was transformed into the figure of Marianne the Republic.

THE USE OF BODY METAPHOR IN DESCRIBING THE SOCIAL IN CHRISTINE DE PIZAN’S “THE BOOK OF THE BODY POLITIC”

The article analyzes «The Book of the Body Politic» (1404–1407) by Christine de Pizan to show how she updated the metaphor of body politic traditional for the Middle Ages, and what were the reasons for the creation of this treatise. In it, Christine excluded the clergy from the tripartite social order scheme: in the political body the sovereign replaced the pope and the clergy. Instead of the Church playing the leading role as the ‘soul’ of society, the author introduced humanistic concepts of "good arising from the virtue" and "morals". Christine also included the third estate in the political life of a kingdom, providing its stratification and hierarchization, and giving a profound description of its role in the body politic. The metaphorical concept of " body politic" broke away from the ecclesiastical and mystical connotations and took root in the secular, political-philosophical tradition.

On Embodiment of Predicative Metaphor: A Case of English Body-action Verbs

This paper presents an analysis of embodiment of predicative metaphor which is an important topic in cognitive linguistic study. Previous researches are mainly about the identification, classification and construal of predicative metaphor, while its cognitive motivation has not been discussed. Based on the conceptual metaphor theory and embodied philosophy, the cognitive motivation of the metaphorical usage of English body-action verbs is discussed. It is concluded that the metaphorical usage of English body-action verbs arises from the embodied experience. Concepts related to human body are preferred to be the source domain of the cross-domain mapping used to understand other concepts. The metaphorical usage of English body-action verbs is created through human body metaphor.

The Metaphorical Interpretation of English and Chinese Body-part Idioms Based on Relevance Theory

As a special language coding way and language phenomenon, metaphor is an important form when humans use language in communication. However, metaphorical mappings are not arbitrary. They are based on our physical experience of the world around us. Idioms are the crystallization of human language and culture and play an important role in human communication. The idiomatic meaning is not simply the sum of the lexical meanings, but often the metaphorical meaning extended from the literal meaning. The paper is based on the relevance theory proposed by Sperber and Wilson (1995), adopts the methods of comparative analysis and text analysis, and takes the idioms of “body metaphor” contained in English and Chinese as the main research object to explore the following questions: 1. What is the interpretation model of the “body-part metaphors” in idioms? 2. In English and Chinese idioms, what are the similarities and differences in the use and interpretation of body-part metaphors? Firstly, the idioms of body-part metaphor are classified based on their projection types, then analyzing the projection methods of each type. Finally, through the new reasoning model guided by relevance theory to analyze the reasoning process of body-part metaphor in English and Chinese idioms, exploring the importance of cognitive context in the interpretation of body-part idioms.

The Malady of the Christian Body: A Theological Exposition of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, Volume 1; The Therapy of the Christian Body: A Theological Exposition of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, Volume 2

SummaryFirst Corinthians is a letter that deals with many issues concerning living in a Christian community, and therefore a promising guide for matters that concern churches today. As the title of the two-volume work indicates the body metaphor is seen as characteristic for the apostle’s vision. The authors engage in a fruitful dialogue with the letter, even though its historical background could have received more attention, just like the function of the chapters on cross and resurrection. But of course the intention of the writers was a theological commentary with ecclesiology as its centre.RÉSUMÉLa première épître aux Corinthiens aborde de nombreuses questions relatives à la vie d’une communauté chrétienne et constitue donc un guide prometteur pour bien des problèmes que les Églises rencontrent aujourd’hui. Comme l’indique le titre des deux volumes, la métaphore du corps est considérée comme caractéristique de la vision de l’apôtre. Les auteurs entrent en dialogue avec la lettre de manière fructueuse, même si l’on peut regretter que l’arrière-plan historique n’ait pas reçu plus d’attention, ainsi que la fonction des chapitres sur la croix et la résurrection. Mais l’intention des auteurs était de réaliser un commentaire théologique centré sur l’ecclésiologie.ZusammenfassungDer erste Korintherbrief befasst sich mit vielen Anliegen, die das Leben in einer christlichen Gemeinschaft betreffen, und ist daher ein verheißungsvoller Leitfaden bei Fragen, die Gemeinden von heute haben. Wie dem Titel des zweibändigen Werkes zu entnehmen ist, wird die Leibmetapher als charakteristisch für die Sicht des Apostels angesehen. Die Autoren begeben sich in einen fruchtbaren Dialog mit dem Brief, auch wenn dessen historischer Hintergrund mehr Aufmerksamkeit erhalten haben könnte; dies gilt auch für die Kapitel über Kreuz und Auferstehung, Doch natürlich lag die Absicht der Autoren in einem theologischen Kommentar mit Ekklesiologie als dessen Herzstück.

Del descanso forzado a la cama interconectada como espacio de creación. Escenarios posibles desde las prácticas artísticas contemporáneas = From Forced Rest to the Interconnected Bed as a Space for Creation. Possible Stages in Contemporary Art Practices

El reposo al que la enfermedad conduce para mitigar el dolor encuentra –cultural e históricamente– como escenario paradigmático el lecho, la cama. Este mueble, en tanto metáfora corporal, suele ser testigo de acontecimientos como el nacimiento, la enfermedad, la sexualidad y el erotismo o la muerte. En el arte, ha devenido tropo frecuente al exponer dichas cuestiones, conduciendo a una re-experimentación creativa del espacio doméstico. Analizaremos una genealogía de artistas que aportan otra mirada a este enser por el que el cuerpo pasa, y que, debido a la experiencia de la enfermedad y el trauma, se resignifica, llevando al autor a replantar su propio habitar e incluso su práctica artística. Partiremos de la Estética y la Historia del Arte para localizar las principales exposiciones sobre el tema y pondremos en relación a los artistas que han tratado la cama como repositorio de dicho padecer.AbstractThe repose to which the disease leads to mitigate the pain, finds –culturally and historically– as a paradigmatic scenario the bed. This piece of furniture, as a body metaphor, is usually witness of events such as birth, disease, sexuality and eroticism or death. In art, the bed has become a frequent trope especially to expose the illness as a moment of forced rest in which it is possible to creatively re-experience the domestic. We propose a genealogy of artists who bring another look to this belonging that, due to the experience of pain, trauma or disease, is re-signified, leading the author to reconsider his own habitat. We will start from Aesthetics and History of Art to analyse the main exhibitions on the subject and we will put in relation the artists who have treated the bed as a repository of said suffering.

When Pots Had Legs: Body Metaphors on Maya Vessels

A body is a vessel. A vessel is a body. This metaphor frequently proved irresistible to ancient artisans, yet the conceptual work that it did varied greatly across time and space. A Moche stirrup-spouted vessel in the shape of a human head, perhaps a portrait of a specific individual, is by no means the same as a Protocorinthian aryballos where an elaborately coiffed female head tops the swelling curves of the oil flask beneath (for more on body metaphors in Greek ceramics, see Richard Neer’s essay in this volume). Neither is like a ritual wine beaker in the shape of a fantastical bird, every inch of its cast bronze surface patterned with symmetrical masks.3 But morphology is not meaning. Saying that a vessel is shaped like a body is where the inquiry must begin, not where it ends. In this chapter, I trace the shifting meanings associated with the body metaphor in Maya pottery from the city of Tikal, located in modern Guatemala. Between 300 and 800 CE, there were at least three moments when lids adorned with human heads caused vessels to be read as bodies. Vessels became a medium of fruitful dialogue with the past, as each iteration of the theme clearly drew on previous precedent, but used it to radically different ends. What began as a relatively unpopular adjunct to a predominant world of animal body metaphors on clay serving dishes before 400 CE became a satisfying way to integrate foreign forms in succeeding decades and the key touchstone in a pair of archaizing vessels made out of precious jade centuries later. Within this chain of associations, the bodies invoked became increasingly specific, their meanings more and more politically charged. It is surprisingly difficult to write about an individual vessel in isolation. Bound by the constraints of function and tradition, each vessel is an entry into a series of similar objects. Much of the interest—and what makes the examples here so distinctive—is in the way that they play on the existing constraints and conventions of their genre, eking new meaning out of small but conceptually significant changes in decorative program. Getting at how this is accomplished means paying close attention to each individual vessel, while also thinking about series, context, assemblage, interaction, and intended contents.

Revisiting Body Theology Approaches

Chapter 6 revisits feminist theologies, using body theology commitments to analyze potential issues detected in the works of Carter Heyward and Marcella Althaus-Reid. Inattention to the dynamics of perception fundamental to our bodily experience inadvertently undermines the strength of their respective works. Both theologians explicitly reflect on bodily experience and seek to construct liberative theologies, make reference to the pitfalls of body/mind dualisms, and highlight, in one way or another, knowledge via perception. Bringing body theology commitments to Carter Heyward’s theological project, the chapter discusses ways in which body theology can go beyond naïve appeals to sensory perception as epistemological venue. Marcella Althaus-Reid’s work will serve as an example of body metaphor theology. Exploring and suspending/delaying Althaus-Reid’s theological method will show how body theology can strengthen theological aims, namely by dwelling on and exploring experience more thoroughly, thus avoiding a too quick move from experience to metaphor.