Journey as allegory of reading in the dramatic monologues of Robert Browning

Abstract

An allegory of reading insists on the close reading of the symbolic. This thesis deploys the reading of the symbolic and the literal (metaphor and metonymy). I address the journey as a trope so that it can be apprehended as metaphor and metonymy?and how the journey trope provides the trajectory from the literal to the symbolic, and from metonymy (which includes synecdoche) to metaphor. A modified version of Paul de Man?s concept of the transfer of tropes is applied alongside Robert Browning?s dramatic monologues to open a space for comprehending the journey as a trope and an allegory of reading Browning?s poetry. The objective of this dissertation is to present the journey trope as an allegory of Browning?s aesthetic demonstration that metonymy is the driving force behind the power and tenacity of the metaphor.