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Metaphor as Appropriation
- Philosophy and Literature
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 38, Number 1, April 2014
- pp. 142-152
- 10.1353/phl.2014.0012
- Article
- Additional Information
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I argue that metaphor may be understood as the appropriation of the literal meanings of words, in order to give them a use that differs from their functions. Just as Duchamp took the Mona Lisa, or rather a reproduction of it, and added a moustache, a maker of a metaphor takes a literal word or sentence and uses and abuses it. This allows for a solution to a number of puzzles concerning metaphor.