The interpretation of literary metaphors and symbols : a study of EFL students' needs

• Main Author: Trimarco, Paola Marie
• Published: University of Edinburgh 1991
• Subjects: 410
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.663041

This thesis reports on an investigation of some of the skills needed by EFL students in order for them to interpret literary metaphors and symbols found in poems written in English. This exposition is divided into four parts. Part I contains two chapters which introduce this investigation. Part II provides a theoretical description of the recognition and interpretation of literary metaphors and symbols; this description is based on Eco's interpretive schema and my extension of that schema which includes an account of contextual features used for interpretation. Part III discusses subjects' responses to poems with respect to two specific hypotheses; namely, when reading poems written in English, non-native English speakers are less likely than native English speakers to 1) use intertextual referents when producing interpretations, and 2) comprehend the distinctions between literal and metaphorical levels of a poem. And finally, Part IV concludes this exposition with pedagogical implications of my experiments and suggestions for further research.