What Metaphors Mean

Article published in the «Critical Inquiry» — 1978 — Vol. 5 — No. 1 (Special Issue on Metaphor, Autumn) — pp. 31-47.Metaphor is the dreamwork of language and, like all dreamwork, its interpretation reflects as much on the interpreter as on the originator. The interpretation of dreams requires collaboration between a dreamer and a waker, even if they be the same person; and the act of interpretation is itself a work of the imagination. So too understanding a metaphor is as much a creative endeavor as making a metaphor, and as little guided by rules.