metaphor and Narrative
https://www.neme.org/projects/hosted/metaphor-and-narrative
The seminar metaphor and Narrative, was a NeMe hosted event, co-organised by the Lab of Animation Research of the Cyprus University of Technology and Vivliotropio.
We can describe metaphor as a deliberate “misinterpretation” or “ambiguity,” which frees meaning from its well-defined content and allows it to oscillate between several levels of interpretation.
This distinctive property of metaphor, to escape from fixed and rigid meanings through ambiguity, provides the possibility of access to alternative perspectives or narratives of reality (physical, psychological, social, etc.). Often, metaphor opens up an “in-between” space in the psychological and physical reality, since concepts used to define objects in physical space are simultaneously used as properties of psychological states.
Metaphor as a dominant narrative tool in the works of both creators, author Maria A. Ioannou, and animator Jan Švankmajer,, functions as such a link that connects the physical reality of the characters in the stories with their psychological reality. This is because the material objects that surround them become an extension of their memories, emotions, thoughts and self, and ultimately their entire psychological reality, to the extent that the boundaries between the psychological, subjective and physical worlds become blurred.
In the short story Cellophane by Maria A. Ioannou, a suit in a cellophane that looks like a man comes to life in the story of a child who denies the loss of his father, while in the short story, I want to go home, by the same author, a house becomes a mirror of the memories of the character who returns to his abandoned house after years, and is absorbed by them.
Similarly, in the case of Jan Švankmajer‘s animated film, In the Cellar, the objects seem – in the darkness of the cellar – to animate themselves to embody the greatest fears of a girl who goes down to the cellar to get potatoes.
Thus, through their metaphorical dimension, the objects embody the subconscious aspect of the characters. They come alive and “rebel” to bring the characters of the two creators’ stories face to face with their dark selves.
Speakers: Maria A. Ioannou, Nicos Synnos, Christos Panayiotou
