Elias Canetti's Masse und Macht was first published in 1960. Since then it has been both criticised as banal and unscientific and applauded for using literary techniques to provide valuable insights into crowds and power. This book resolves this apparent paradox by examining the language and theories in Masse und Macht using a typology of metaphor that draws on recent theories in the field of cognitive rhetoric. This area of cognitive linguistics argues against the division of scientific, literary and common language into irreconcilable spheres and shows that the human ability to reason is predicated on metaphorical thought. By illustrating the essential inseparability of various types of metaphor in Masse und Macht, this book demonstrates that there is no conflict in accepting Canetti's theories as both poetic and scientific insights simultaneously.
| ISBN: | 9783906759098 |
| Publication date: | 1st March 1999 |
| Author: | David Scott |
| Publisher: | Lang, Peter, AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften an imprint of Lang, Peter, AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissen |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 206 pages |
| Series: | Australisch-Neuseelandische Studien Zur Deutschen Sprache Und : Australian and New Zealand Studies in German Language And |
| Genres: |
Language: reference and general Language: history and general works Literary studies: postcolonial literature Philosophy: epistemology and theory of knowledge Social and political philosophy |