Language & Intercultural Communication
Editor: Dr John Corbett (University of Glasgow)
Associate Editor: Robert Crawshaw (Lancaster University)
Reviews and Criticism Editor: Dr Fiona J. Doloughan (University of Surrey)
Editorial Board: Gavin Jack (University of Stirling)
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Volume: 7 Number: 1 Page: 2–15
doi:10.2167/laic201.0
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A Metaphorical Basis for Transcultural Narrative: A Response to David Pan
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Jonathan P.A. Sell
Universidad de Alcalá, Madrid, Spain
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This paper takes issue with recent claims regarding the impossibility of the transcultural narrative. After demonstrating the possibility of such narrative, a metaphorical model is proposed as a useful means of approaching the transcultural narrative. It is shown how an intellectual process of analogy and an affective process of empathy enable the transcultural narrative's initial alterity to be assimilated to form part of the reader's culturally specific conceptual system. This assimilation does not mean that the transcultural narrative ceases to be transcultural because, as is the case with all narratives, total comprehension and therefore total assimilation is impossible.
Keywords: metaphor, transcultural narrative, wonder, cognition, affect, wit
© 2007 J.P.A. Sell
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