J  a  c  k    B  i  c  e
"The Metaphorical Image in Art",
graduate thesis for Master of Fine Arts,
University of Colorado
1964

Introductory Abstract

In this writing, the idea of "metaphorical consciousness", a mode of perception through which mankind amasses much of its "mental substance", is contrasted to the vacuous sense provided by logic's crisp, unimpassioned, unyielding, mechanical analysis of causes and effects.  Metaphorical awareness fills life with a more human richness than does cold logic--a richness born of human concerns, sensibilities and spirit made tangible.  It liberates and embodies these qualities, components of any consciousness which claims to ennoble men and women rather than to seduce them into "automatic" existence.

Metaphorical conscience can be observed in the casual perceptual habits of people in ordinary life.  Perhaps for some person a distant train whistle inwardly embodies a nostalgic past.  Or, a broom is known by a child to be a horse, placing him--metaphorically--in a commanding position as cowboy or knight.  But this is not the extent of this mode of awareness' dynamics operating amid and elucidating, human concerns.  The same phenomenon of transliteration--wherein one object, idea, event or circumstance bespeaks another in potent, embellishing guise otherwise drab or mute--is found working toward expressive eloquence at every level of intelligence.  Moses perceived a vision of God-as-burning-bush; this became a metaphorical symbol of persistent effect in the lives of generations of humans.  Beethoven similarly created the spirits of anguish, gaiety, power and the sublime, giving them "image"--metaphorically--in the form of his music.

Such examples demonstrate the effects of metaphorical consciousness within life, as well as its high resolution in art.
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XVIII. Conclusion

Metaphorical Imagery is mankind's way of seeing beyond.  If humanity in the Twentieth Century is prone to lament, as Pascal did centuries ago:


When I consider the brief span of my life swallowed up in the eternity before and after it, the small space that I fill, or even see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces which I know not, and which know not me, I am afraid and wonder to see myself here rather than there; for there is no reason why I should be here rather than there, now rather than then.

Therefore, Andre Malraux can comment as if in reply to the Present Day:


The greatest mystery is not that we should be tossed by chance amongst the profusion of matter and the welter of the stars; it is, rather, that within this prison, we are able to draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness.

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A Note added in February 2004
Among my most interesting realizations while writing this thesis was that metaphorical facility is equally as important in creative science as in art or daily living.  This is illustrated in, among many more instances, the "Eureka moments" experienced by Edison as he invented, Einstein as he conceived Relativity Theory and Heisenberg as he visualized quantum mechanics.  All creativity, whether in art or science, evokes the whole human intellect and the natural superimposing and blending of accrued experience--mental substance vitalized within itself.  - jb

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To read the complete, 93-page thesis, please contact the University of Colorado Library, in Boulder, where it is on file: (PASCAL OFFSITE T 1964 .B47 c.2 AVAILABLE. Thesis (M.F.A.)-University of Colorado, 1964. Includes bibliopgraphical references (leaves [94-94]) Typescript bcr:jf OCLC# 48818721 Call# T 1964 .B47

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