SYMBOLIC METAPHORS IN DURRENMATT’S “THE MINOTAUR” WITHIN MYTHOLOGICAL, POSTMODERN AND EXISTENTIALIST CONTEXTS
The research aims to interpret the symbolic metaphors in the ballad “Minotaur” with a focus on the commonalities and differences in their interpretation by Dürrenmatt in relation to mythological, postmodernist, and existential-philosophical traditions. This is achieved through the application of...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Alfred Nobel University Publisher
2024-06-01
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| Series: | Вісник університету ім. А. Нобеля. Серія Філологічні науки |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://phil.duan.edu.ua/images/PDF/2024/1/8.pdf |
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| Summary: | The research aims to interpret the symbolic metaphors in the ballad “Minotaur” with a focus on
the commonalities and differences in their interpretation by Dürrenmatt in relation to mythological,
postmodernist, and existential-philosophical traditions. This is achieved through the application of
intertextual, structural-semiotic, and hermeneutical methods of literary analysis in conjunction with
linguistic methods such as conceptual blending and the method of interactive theory of metaphor. The
metaphors of Labyrinth, Mirrors, and Minotaur, which are polycomponential and polysemantic, with one
source space and multiple target spaces, contribute to the hermeneutic, symbolic, and semantic codes
of the text. The Labyrinth metaphor includes target spaces of “refuge”, “other”, and “self-discovery”;
Mirrors – the Universe of the Minotaur and the “threshold” – a polysemantic metaphor, interpreted in the hermeneutic code as the boundary between the world of the Minotaur and the outer world and
between the animal and human elements. The image of the Minotaur is projected into the target space of
“loneliness” and the “mirror of Man”.
The blended spaces of all the metaphors form the hermeneutic code of the text, which is supported
by the semantic code and the symbolic code of oppositions. For the “labyrinth” metaphors, the semantic
metaphorical periphery includes, depending on the target space, connotations of “happiness”, “harmony”,
“friendliness”, “interconnectedness”, and “bewilderment”, “distrust”, “misunderstanding”. The “Mirrors”
metaphors involve connotations of infinity, timelessness, vastness, associated with the target space of the
Universe, and “danger”, “cruelty”, “death”, “fear”, which intensify the target space of the Threshold. The
semantic periphery of the “Minotaur is Loneliness” metaphor is reinforced by connotations like “prison”,
“inevitability”, “abandonment”, “betrayal”, “fear”, “disappointment”.
In the symbolic code, the “labyrinth” metaphor unfolds in oppositions such as “trust and betrayal”,
“life and death”, “pleasure and pain”, “harmony and chaos”, the insolubility of which is associated with
the rhizomatic labyrinth. The “Mirror-Threshold” metaphor is associated with oppositions like self – other,
human – animal (with role reversal: the animalistic element in a human teaches the animal to be a beast),
commonality – otherness. The symbolic code associated with the “Minotaur is Loneliness” and “Minotaur
is the Mirror of Man” metaphors is based on oppositions of naivety, trust, friendliness, and kindness, which
characterize the Minotaur-animal before his encounter with a human, and murder, cruelty, and betrayal,
which distinguish humans. These oppositions encode the hermeneutic code of the text: Minotaur – the
negation of the animal element vs. Man – the negation of the human element in the Minotaur.
Reinterpreted in the ballad, the metaphors maintain an allusive connection with mythological
archetypes and metaphorical symbolism in postmodernism. In the metaphor of the labyrinth, the
mythological symbolism draws on the archetypal image of the labyrinth as a structure of the universe,
a cycle of life, the idea of eternal return, and initiation. The postmodern tradition is evident in the
interpretation of the labyrinth as a metaphor for chaos, loss of meaning, and disorientation, with the
destruction of the deciphered labyrinth. From an existential perspective, the metaphor is interpreted in
the ballad in connection with the concepts of the labyrinthine nature of Self, encounters with oneself, the
transition from existence to essence, and the anxiety, fear, and despair accompanying such a transition.
The metaphor of the mirror in the ballad, in accordance with the postmodern tradition, combines with
the archetypal image of the labyrinth in dual symbolic and metaphorical relationships: Mirror – Another
world, Mirror – Labyrinth as a metaphor for an otherworldly realm that draws one into the labyrinth.
Reminiscences of postmodernism include the images of labyrinthine mirrors as metaphors for infinity, the
universe as a mirrored illusion, and as antitheses to loneliness, when the mirrors are populated by beings.
The archetype of the Minotaur allusively intersects with ancient Greek mythology and its
postmodernism reinterpretations as the encounter of a person with his beastly essence, as well as with
existentialist ideas of “Self” and the “Other”, “The Other and the Look”, and the inevitability of conflict and
guilt that arise when the Self encounters the Other: when confronted with the Other-Human, the innocent
Minotaur becomes guilty solely because he exists. |
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| ISSN: | 2523-4463 2523-4749 |