The Rhetoric of Dreams

231 Pages·1988·19.136 MB·English

by  Bert O. States

The Rhetoric of Dreams
By the same author:
Irony and Drama: A Poetics
The Shape of Paradox:
An Essay on Waiting for Go dot
Great Reckonings in Little Rooms:
On the Phenomenology of Theater
The Rhetoric
of Dreams
Bert 0. States
Cornell
University
Press
Ithaca and London
Copyright © 1988 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this
book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without
permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address
Cornell University Press, 124 Roberts Place, Ithaca, New York
14850.
First published 1988 by Cornell University Press.
International Standard Book Number o-8014-2198-5
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 88-47766
Librarians: Library of Congress cataloging information
appears on the last page of the book.
The paper in this book is acid-free and meets the guidelines for permanence
and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book
Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
For Dan McCall

Contents
Acknowledgments lX
Introduction
PART ONE: THE DREAM WORLD
I Think, Therefore I Dream
2 Involuntary Poetry
PART TWO: THE DREAM WORK
3 The Tropological Approach 83
4 Metonymy and Synecdoche 94
5 Metaphor 125
6 Irony 150
7 Rhetoric and Repression 184
Index 213

Acknowledgments
P
ARTS OF this book appeared first in essay form as the
following: "The Art of Dreaming," Hudson Review
31 {Winter 1978-79): 571-586; "I Think, Therefore I
Dream," Hudson Review 39 {Spring 1986): 53-80;
"Dream and Memory," Dreamworks 3 (1983): 153-159. I
thank the editors of the Hudson Review and Dreamworks
for permission to use those essays in greatly revised form.
I owe a special debt to Frederick Morgan and his editors
at Hudson for their long-standing encouragement in this
and other projects of mine. I also want to acknowledge
the careful and, as usual, inspiring reading of the manu
script by my friend and colleague Paul Hernadi of the
University of California at Santa Barbara.
B.O.S.
Santa Barbara, California