Michel Tournier and the Metaphor of Fiction

This lively and thought-provoking study approaches Tournier's writing via the concept of metaphor, seeing it not just as a particular technical device but as a dimension in the whole enterprise of writing. Metaphor itself is the subject of lively debate, and this is the first published study to investigate its application to Tournier's work in a systematic fashion. This method of analysis enables the author both to present some distinctive commentaries on certain Tournier fictions and to open up elements of a wider debate about the role of literature in society and the cognitive function of metaphor in general.