Killingsworth mentions how one of the four tropes, metaphor is the “the most commonly recognized example in ordinary language”(121). Without the understanding of the four tropes one cannot effectively decipher these commonly used examples. Which are a way for us as humans to “express the emotional quality of our relationship to the world”(122). Not understanding how these tropes function can hinder our ability to relate and work with people in our culture. All four of the tropes (metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, irony) have their unique quality in which they express something. Tropes may be closely related to the term ‘genre’ as they both categorize a broad and at times abstract expression. Although as genre can refer categorizing ways in which a movie is made and how a story is portrayed on screen and what cinema techniques were used. The four tropes are not just categorizing ways of expressing something. They are more typically expressing completely different subjects through various mediums, not as all movie genres are expressed through film, but they are categories of ways to use similar technique to describe completely different situations. Which is why is is so hard to just put them as four sublets for one main form of expression.
As expected in type of persuasive piece traces of the four tropes are found frequently in Daniel’s hypertext essay. With the tropes working so well to connect emotions to common language they were very effective in getting the point across.
In my journey through the ‘Public Secrets’ hypertext one trope I stumbled upon was “Let the Terminator explain it”. This is a perfect example of a Metonymy. I thought the best way for understanding any of the four tropes was reading the examples of them. The example that was most effective for me in the Metonymy section was “Bush bombs Iraq”(128). Bush is not actually bombing Iraq but he is controlling and the head of the armed forces. The prisoner who is quoted in the ‘Public Secrets’ piece is replacing Terminator for her governor who played the role Terminator in a famous movie.
One could make a case that the use of tropes in language were the first signs of hypertext. When a trope is used the face value of the text does not give a accurate message of what it really means. The text is layered and needs additional knowledge to be deciphered. When somebody hears a metaphor for example the one Killingsworth uses from Dr. King Jr. of a how to “treat injustice the way a doctor would treat a painful boil”(125) they need to be able know how a doctor treats a boil to be able to picture and be on the same page with Dr. King Jr.’s message. In the receivers head they are bouncing through information just as someone would be on a computer surfing from link to link. This can be compared to George Landows’s theory of hypertext and intertextuality. He states in his essay “Hypertext and Critical Theory” that “Hypertext, which is a fundamentally intertextual system, has the capacity to emphasize intertextuality in a way that page bound text in books cannot.” Tropes work in a way that intertextuality gives them more meaning and help express emotion in an extremely effective way. They are similar to hypertext because they both use intertextuality to make language more effective
Works Cited:
Killingsworth, M. Jimmie. “Appeal Through Tropes.” Appeals in Modern Rhetoric: An Ordinary-
Language Approach. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 2005. 121-135.
Daniel, Sharon. “Public Secrets.” Vectors 2.2 (Winter 2007): n. pag. Web.
http://www.vectorsjournal.org/projects/index.php?project=57
Landow, George P. “Hypertext and Critical Theory.” In Hypertext 2.0: The Convergence of
Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins, 1997. 33-48.
I too wrote about the similarity of genre and the tropes and the abstraction of both terms. Tropes are a way of connecting things whether they be similar or different. I see genre in the same way. Given two movies, both classified in the comedy genre, the film can still be vastly different. Or on the other hand they can be very similar. Again, I agree that it is difficult to set four concrete tropes just as it is hard to group things such as films into genres because of their complexity. Tropes are, as you put it “very effective in getting the point across.”
ReplyDeleteIn my post I didn’t touch very much on the trope of metonymy. I agree that the idea of “Bush bombing Iraq” is a very clear way of exemplifying metonymy. I didn’t see the video “Let the Terminator explain it” in my viewing of “Public Secrets” but as you have described it, it seems like a very valid example of metonymy.
I love your argument that the use of tropes can be see as the first sign of hypertext. I hadn’t thought about it that way but you’re right. Tropes, at face value do not give the reader correct or full information. A hypertext gives linked information to the reader for clarification.
Justin, Everything that you said is correct but I think that you are looking at the use of tropes in this work in a much too limited way. There are metaphors, synecdoche metonymy and irony as figurative language throughout the text of course. This happens in every work of literature and every piece of text. We are inherently figurative creatures who use these devices as ways of thought. I think to fully apply Killingsworth to the hypertext piece you need to see that these tropes are not only present as figurative language but as actions within the discourse of the text. For example, the synecdoche of representing the entire oppressed prison population with all of these interviews is why this piece is so powerful. Also, Daniel is begging us to see the dramatic irony of our own perspectives as we are brought into the actuality of why and how these women are suffering. You could even see the prison system in the piece as a metaphorical action bringing together the ideas of racism and systematic oppression. Whatever the case is I think when we limit the tropes to simply figurative language we do ourselves an injustice in seeing the associations between real world ideas and discourses.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said in your post but I do agree you are looking at tropes in too narrow of an angle, purely because I did so the same way until I started reading everyone else's posts. As Daniel explained, there are different aspects that go on in every work of literature, whether lengthy or simple. Without realizing it, we all apply these concepts to the works we read, which is something I found very interesting. I never realized that metaphors are literally the combining of two opposite things, which is how I often try to relate and understand things in my mind.
ReplyDeleteThe way you explained metonymy helped me understand it as well. Although Bush was not physically bombing Iraq himself, he was the figure head of the bombing of Iraq. This gave me a much clearer idea of what a metonymy is.
The connection between genre and topes sticks out to me pretty boldly as well. They both connect things in ways that might also indicate a piece of their meaning. I was also lead in another direction. For genres, they act to define and find common threads in which to associate things, to bring them together into the same room with each other and even to compare between them. Tropes act a bit differently for me. They bring two things together, yes, they even compare between in some way. However, they aren't defining them in terms of each other or finding anything common in which to make a permanent association. They are used as devices to rouse interpretation.
ReplyDeleteGenres can also do this but it does so in a different manner.
like both cars and planes are used to reach a destination, but flying and driving are vastly different.
Killingsworth’s typology of the four tropes, identification, association, representation and distance, help us to see different pieces of writing from different view points. Our association and understanding of these ideas and concepts can be seen as something that adds flexibility to any writing, particularly to that of Danial’s hypertextual piece on institutionalized woman. It is through my interpretation of Killingsworth’s text, “Appeal Through Tropes” that I saw how tropes should be treated as forms. Each implementation of a certain kind of trope has an effect on a different kind of writing. Different tropes help to tie in connections with other words and in turn tie in connections to emotions with pieces of writing. Killingsworth’s description of trope most reminds me of the concept of genre. The concept of genre and of tropes both associate themselves with different groups or concepts of writing or mediums. Of the tropes that Killingsworth discusses in her work, I feel that “metonymy” relates the most to Daniel’s hypertext essay. The stark difference between the world of these penitentiary inmates and the world that we live in is a gap that Daniel’s starkly contrasts through her choice of color and description of the jail. Additionally, Daniel’s chose to exclude any photos or video of the inmates further separating our world from their dark cold jail cell walls. This metaphorical and symbolic darkness of jail is well represented through Daniel’s hypertext essay. “If metaphor works by identifying similar things, metonymy works by substituting a thing for a closely associated (contiguous) thing” (Killingsworth 127). The execution of Daniel’s hypertext essay is spot on in terms of reliability to her audience. Like I stated above, Daniel’s website was composed in a way that left much of the sensory information about the jail up to the audience, this included mostly photographs and videos. As an audience, Dainel really only provides us with audio descriptions of what the prison looks like, smells like as well as the depressingly lonely location of the prison. Daniel’s choice of dark black and grey colors helped to paint a description in our minds that made us feel as though the prison was as depressing as the website itself. Another interesting aspect of Daniel’s critique was that she chose to only include snippets of each interview, thus implying that we are hearing only what she wants us to hear about the prison. It is very obvious after comparing the text of Killingsworth and Daniels that tropes have a profound impact on a writers relationship to their audience.
ReplyDeleteWorks Cited
Daniel, Sharon. “Public Secrets.” Vectors 2.2 (Winter 2007): n. pag. Web. http:// www.vectorsjournal.org/projects/index.php?project=57
Killingsworth, M. Jimmie. “Appeal Through Tropes.” Appeals in Modern Rhetoric: An Ordinary- Language Approach. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 2005. 121-135.