Contagious metaphor Peta Mitchell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mitchell, Peta, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Metaphor--Social aspects.

Metaphor.

Metaphor in literature.

Contagion (Social psychology).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (209 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London New York Continuum 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The metaphor of contagion pervades critical discourse across the humanities, the medical sciences, and the social sciences. It appears in such terms as 'social contagion' in psychology, 'financial contagion' in economics, 'viral marketing' in business, and even 'cultural contagion' in anthropology. In the twenty-first century, contagion, or 'thought contagion' has become a byword for creativity and a fundamental process by which knowledge and ideas are communicated and taken up, and resonates with André Siegfried's observation that 'there is a striking parallel between the spreading of germs and the spreading of ideas'. In Contagious Metaphor, Peta Mitchell offers an innovative, interdisciplinary study of the metaphor of contagion and its relationship to the workings of language. Examining both metaphors of contagion and metaphor as contagion, Contagious Metaphor suggests a framework through which the emergence and often epidemic-like reproduction of metaphor can be better understood

Contents:

Contagious metaphor

Pestilence and poison winds: literary contagions and the endurance of miasma theory

The French fin de siecle and the birth of social contagion theory

The contagion of example

Infectious ideas: Dawkins, meme theory, and the politics of metaphor

Networks of contagion

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Due Preparations

1. Contagious metaphor

2. Pestilence and poison winds: Literary contagions and the endurance of miasma theory

3. The French fin de siècle and the birth of social contagion theory

4. The contagion of example

5. Infectious ideas: Richard Dawkins, meme theory, and the politics of metaphor

6. Networks of contagion

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index

ISBN:

9781472542335

1472542339

9781283853378

128385337X

9781441197436

1441197435

OCLC:

820011202