SYMBOLIC METAPHORS IN DURRENMATT’S “THE MINOTAUR” WITHIN MYTHOLOGICAL, POSTMODERN AND EXISTENTIALIST CONTEXTS

Abstract

The research aims to interpret the symbolic metaphors in the ballad “Minotaur” with a focus on the commonalities and differences in their interpretation by Dürrenmatt in relation to mythological, postmodernist, and existential-philosophical traditions. This is achieved through the application of intertextual, structural-semiotic, and hermeneutical methods of literary analysis in conjunction with linguistic methods such as conceptual blending and the method of interactive theory of metaphor. The metaphors of Labyrinth, Mirrors, and Minotaur, which are polycomponential and polysemantic, with one source space and multiple target spaces, contribute to the hermeneutic, symbolic, and semantic codes of the text. The Labyrinth metaphor includes target spaces of “refuge”, “other”, and “self-discovery”; Mirrors – the Universe of the Minotaur and the “threshold” – a polysemantic metaphor, interpreted in the hermeneutic code as the boundary between the world of the Minotaur and the outer world and between the animal and human elements. The image of the Minotaur is projected into the target space of “loneliness” and the “mirror of Man”. The blended spaces of all the metaphors form the hermeneutic code of the text, which is supported by the semantic code and the symbolic code of oppositions. For the “labyrinth” metaphors, the semantic metaphorical periphery includes, depending on the target space, connotations of “happiness”, “harmony”, “friendliness”, “interconnectedness”, and “bewilderment”, “distrust”, “misunderstanding”. The “Mirrors” metaphors involve connotations of infinity, timelessness, vastness, associated with the target space of the Universe, and “danger”, “cruelty”, “death”, “fear”, which intensify the target space of the Threshold. The semantic periphery of the “Minotaur is Loneliness” metaphor is reinforced by connotations like “prison”, “inevitability”, “abandonment”, “betrayal”, “fear”, “disappointment”. In the symbolic code, the “labyrinth” metaphor unfolds in oppositions such as “trust and betrayal”, “life and death”, “pleasure and pain”, “harmony and chaos”, the insolubility of which is associated with the rhizomatic labyrinth. The “Mirror-Threshold” metaphor is associated with oppositions like self – other, human – animal (with role reversal: the animalistic element in a human teaches the animal to be a beast), commonality – otherness. The symbolic code associated with the “Minotaur is Loneliness” and “Minotaur is the Mirror of Man” metaphors is based on oppositions of naivety, trust, friendliness, and kindness, which characterize the Minotaur-animal before his encounter with a human, and murder, cruelty, and betrayal, which distinguish humans. These oppositions encode the hermeneutic code of the text: Minotaur – the negation of the animal element vs. Man – the negation of the human element in the Minotaur. Reinterpreted in the ballad, the metaphors maintain an allusive connection with mythological archetypes and metaphorical symbolism in postmodernism. In the metaphor of the labyrinth, the mythological symbolism draws on the archetypal image of the labyrinth as a structure of the universe, a cycle of life, the idea of eternal return, and initiation. The postmodern tradition is evident in the interpretation of the labyrinth as a metaphor for chaos, loss of meaning, and disorientation, with the destruction of the deciphered labyrinth. From an existential perspective, the metaphor is interpreted in the ballad in connection with the concepts of the labyrinthine nature of Self, encounters with oneself, the transition from existence to essence, and the anxiety, fear, and despair accompanying such a transition. The metaphor of the mirror in the ballad, in accordance with the postmodern tradition, combines with the archetypal image of the labyrinth in dual symbolic and metaphorical relationships: Mirror – Another world, Mirror – Labyrinth as a metaphor for an otherworldly realm that draws one into the labyrinth. Reminiscences of postmodernism include the images of labyrinthine mirrors as metaphors for infinity, the universe as a mirrored illusion, and as antitheses to loneliness, when the mirrors are populated by beings. The archetype of the Minotaur allusively intersects with ancient Greek mythology and its postmodernism reinterpretations as the encounter of a person with his beastly essence, as well as with existentialist ideas of “Self” and the “Other”, “The Other and the Look”, and the inevitability of conflict and guilt that arise when the Self encounters the Other: when confronted with the Other-Human, the innocent Minotaur becomes guilty solely because he exists.

Keywords

• symbolic metaphor
• conceptual integration
• postmodernism
• narrative-semiotic codes
• myth
• existentialism