Seeing through Metaphor

Abstract

Metaphors are a way of “seeing-as” (Ricoeur 2003/1975:236). They invoke spectatorship because they provoke images: “The sole aim of a metaphor is to call up a visual image” (Orwell 1969/1946:223) so that “we see one thing as another” (Davidson 1984:247). Thus, when politics is described as theater, a spectator is necessarily invoked not just because theater involves spectatorship but because metaphor users are spectators. Spectatorship is also invoked in recipients because metaphors prompt them to see a phenomenon differently. In the process, recipients are turned into spectators. This capacity was central to Quintilian’s teachings on rhetoric: since images had a greater impact than words, turning auditors into spectators led to more efective persuasion (Skinner 1996:188).