Charles Lock

Debts and displacements : On metaphor and metonymy

Abstract Roman Jakobsons distinction between metaphor and metonymy has been celebrated as a major contribution not only to linguistics and semiotics but to the understanding of ‘language, culture, and human thought in general.’ 1 The implications and the genealogy of this distinction have been, in part, articulated by Jakobson in his most comprehensive exposition of the topic: ‘Two Aspects of Language and Two Types of Aphasic Disturbance’ (1956). The two names mentioned there by Jakobson are those of Frazer and Freud.

Beyond the Literary Theme Park: J. M. Coetzee's Late Style in The Childhood of Jesus

J.M. Coetzee’s novel, The Childhood of Jesus , makes use of postmodern pastiche: various literary themes are recycled as if on display in a “ literary theme park.” Coetzee also reuses themes he has explored in his previous works. Here a link can be made to Edward Said’s idea of late style, which includes an element of self-quotation. However, two issues are so important that Coetzee probes them further rather than recycles them. One is a conception of family based not on blood relations, but love. This is part of the other, more fundamental issue: the contingency of the world. By engaging with these subjects, The Childhood of Jesus embodies late style in Coetzee’s own sense of the term.

Collusions and Imbrications: Life Writing and Colonial Spaces

ABSTRACT This essay offers an investigation into the characteristics or distinctive features of life writing in colonial and postcolonial spaces. Among the examples of life writing here considered are George Lamming’s In The Castle of My Skin and C. L. R. James’s Beyond a Boundary, and, less often treated in this context, works by Benjamin Franklin and James Joyce; stress is placed on the importance of American literature for early articulations of the problems and dilemmas of postcolonial life writing. Further emphasis is laid on place, and on the need for bibliographical research into the place of publication of works written in or concerned with colonial spaces.