Metonymy

Okay, need to push forward on this one. The definition is good, and the bullet points also (references?) ... can you add in the definition we worked with in class? Good idea to give examples, too, though the second and third seem borderline to me - i.e., close to just literal, no metonymy. At any rate, it'll be important to distinguish metonymy in everyday speech (the examples you have here) from metonymy in poetry. I suggest you begin treatment of the latter by drawing in our class discussion on //Cathay//. And, what other texts we've read, or will read, use metonymy? (Hint: Williams, Niedecker.) C.

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Definition- (Merriam-Webster) a figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated


 * Metonymy works by the association between two concepts, whereas metaphor works by the similarity between them.
 * When people use metonymy, they do not typically wish to transfer qualities from one referent to another as they do with metaphor.

**Differentiating Metonymy, Metaphor, Synecdoche**
"Metaphor creates the relation between its objects, while metonymy presupposes that relation."

"Metonymy and metaphor also have fundamentally different functions. Metonymy is about referring: a method of naming or identifying something by mentioning something else which is a component part or symbolically linked. In contrast, metaphor is about understanding and interpretation: it is a means to understand or explain one phenomenon by describing it in terms of another."

"Synecdoche means a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa, as in Cleveland won by six runs (meaning “Cleveland's baseball team”)"

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A Psychoanalytical View on Metonymy
The two central processes by which latent content is structured into manifest content are Condensation and Displacement. These are means by which the unconscious relays encoded messages to the level of consciousness. Why is it encoded? Because that’s precisely what language is. This is where things get messy. Just as there are different theorists in different schools of linguistics, there are different psychoanalytical schools with widely divergent viewpoints on what Freud meant by one thing or another, or where he was correct or wrong. Since the focus of Jacques Lacan’s work was on linguistics, dedicating much to metonymy and metaphor, it is beneficial to primarily use his definitions. Given the summary provided in the Psychoanalytic Developments page, keep in mind that Lacan considered “metaphor and metonymy as tropes for... displacement and condensation” (Richter 1115). [2]

In a few places, he demonstrates a vehement opposition to searching for latent meaning through metonymy, and poses this question, “what does man find in metonymy if not the power to circumvent the obstacles of social censure?” (Lacan 1137) How can one argue against the fact, that using one aspect of an object or person to characterize the whole thing, obscures the idea as a whole? How could this argument apply to the modern poets studied in this Wikispace? How does it apply to himself? On the other hand, he also praises metonymy in his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style. Linearity was precisely the thing that he felt society lacked, and it is the linear thought process that creates metonymy, which would allow us to reach that object. “That object is humanistic man.” (Lacan 1148) [1]
 * Metonymy**: In Lacan’s simplest phrasing- “The part taken for the whole” (Lacan 1136). This is close to what you’ll read in any dictionary. Lacan expands on this by saying “it is in the //word-to-word// connection that metonymy is based” (Lacan 1136).

He uses a line from Victor Hugo to illustrate: “His sheaf was neither miserly nor spiteful” (Lacan 1136) The conjunction of unrelated things is demonstrated here, and it was also used in Lacan’s seminar on psychoses. He mentions this before poking fun at the overuse of metaphor by poets. He says of modern poets, “and especially the Surrealist school [they] have taken us a long way in this direction by showing that any conjunction of two signifiers would be equally sufficient to constitute a metaphor, except for the additional requirement of the greatest possible disparity of the images signified... for metaphoric creation to take place” (Lacan 1136). [1]
 * Metaphor**: Lacan says, “One word for another” (1137).

Sources Cited:

Richter, David H., ed. //The Critical Tradition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends//. 3rd ed. Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.

1. Lacan, Jacques. “The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious or Reason since Freud.” Richter 1136-39.

2. Richter, David H. “[Part] 4- Psychoanalytic Theory and Criticism.” Richter 1106-1111.

Metonymy in Modern Poetry

 * Ezra Pound:**
 * Cathay:**
 * **Song of the Bowmen of Shu -** The "first fern shoots" are used to represent spring. It is metonymy because it compares two things that are already associated. New fern shoots can be used to represent spring because the reader is likely to already associate spring with baby plants and new life. Later on the plants are referred to as "old fern stalks", which it metonymous with the seasons turning from summer to fall. The life cycle of plants is metonymous with the changing of the seasons.
 * **The River Song -** "Waters" is metonymous with river. Birds singing is metonymous with the playing of flutes and pipes.
 * **The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter -** "By the gate now, the moss is grown, the different mosses, too deep to clear them away (P.131)!" The overgrown moss is metonymous with the passing of time.
 * **Poem by The Bridge at Ten-Shin: -** "And the moon falls over the portals of Sei-go-yo, and clings to the walls and the gate-top (p.131)." Moon is metonymous with moon light. It is understood that the reader will know the moon casts light on the walls and the gate-top.

//North Central//, "Lake Superior":
 * Lorine Niedecker:**

"In every part of every living thing is stuff that once was rock

In blood the minerals of the rock"

Penberthy, Jenny, ed. //Lorine Niedecker: Collected Works//. Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002. 232.

Beyond providing a simple example of metonymy, Niedecker actually demonstrates a metonymical chain. Not only are we comprised of rock ('dust to dust'), but the rock that comprises minerals flows through the blood of every living thing. Thus: Living things (you + I) - Blood - Minerals - Rock. From here, we could go further and truthfully say that all rock is made from stardust. Ergo, "We Are All Made of Stars" by Moby (2002)- is a true metonymy.

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