In preparing the ground for a discussion of Tournier's fiction from a
metaphorical perspective, my intention has been to create a narrative
which is applicable to Tournier's fictional project and may also make a
modest contribution to current thinking about the role and value of
literature in today's society. In this perspective the restrictions imposed
on metaphor by the poststructuralist view of the figure as limited to an
analysable feature of language need to be lifted, for my argument is
rooted in the presupposition that the study of metaphor helps consid-
erably in the evolution of a theory of the imagination. Once the theory
is in place, new avenues are opened on a number of questions which
have been highlighted and debated in discussions of Tournier's work,
notably the respective roles of author and reader in the literary
construction of meaning, the value of thematic studies in a postmodern
era, and the possibility that, at this self-same moment when cultural
values are seen as relative, aesthetic judgements may still be validated.
An introduction to the history of metaphor will be followed by three
case studies, the function of which is to ground more securely my
readings of Tournier's fiction. These are Paul Ricoeur's theory of
metaphor as imagination, developed by Ricoeur as a form of readerly
response to the ‘phenomenon’ of narrative fiction; Jean Ricardou's less
systematic, though recurrently illuminating writing on the all-perva-
siveness of metaphor in both literary and non-literary discourse; and
finally George Lakoff and Mark Johnson's universalist theory of
metaphor as the primary organiser, the one and only conceptual agent
at work as the human being constantly situates and resituates itself in
relation to the world around it.

Lakoff and Johnson advocate the abolition of boundaries between
discourses seen in terms of the literal and the metaphorical. This radical
departure from the empiricist norm adumbrates much of the discussion
on the value of literary fiction to society at large, for if metaphor is seen
as not only blurring but conspiring actively to break down literary
distinctions between reality, truth and fiction, it will be doing so in the
interests of clearing the paths of communication between the novelist
and his readership, paths which have become, in the postmodern age,
rather overgrown. The discussion is balanced on a knife-edge, between
the aesthetic and the sociological dimensions of the literary process. A
literature which constantly reaffirms its status as fiction will distance
itself from the ‘real world’ influences which shape the responses of its
readers. If literature has become too self-conscious, too abstract, too far
removed from the perceptions of its audience, it is axiomatic that

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