Metaphors We Read By: Rethinking Literary Experience and Interpretation

Metaphors We Read By proposes a metaphorical approach to reading that offers new ways of understanding literary experience and interpretation. It shows how a certain set of metaphors relating to depth and distance have dominated literary studies for many decades, before offering alternative ways of understanding what it means to read and interpret fiction. Taking up recent calls to experiment with new styles, moods and methods of reading, this book shows how we can reimagine aesthetic experience and literary interpretation by using three alternative metaphors: reading as method acting, as overhearing and as perfectionist pursuit. In doing so, Metaphors We Read By intervenes within many lively debates taking place in the field of literary studies, offering important new insights on affect, aesthetics, ethics, reception and philosophical approaches to literature. Drawing on a wide variety of twentieth- and twenty-first century novels, this ground-breaking book shows how metaphorical reading opens up compelling new ways of understanding fiction.