Listening activity

The extract of the novel the teacher
read aloud during the last lesson, regarded the dialogue about metaphor and metonymy
the protagonists had, while driving together. The characters were the director
of a big industry, Victor (whose name appeals to victory)  and a university teacher, Robin (whose name
makes the reader think about Robin Hood, an hero who robbed the reach to give
the poor). They were carrying out a government project, that is the "shadow
project", in order to join together the academic and the job world.

While driving, they saw an
ubiquitous image at regular intervals on their way: it was an advertisement
poster, promoting a cigarette-brand called "silk cut". The poster showed an
expanse of purple silk in which there was a single slit, as if the material had
been slashed with a razor. It had no writings, except for a governing health
warning .

The protagonists started talking
about the advertisement: Victor could just catch the surface meaning of the
picture: it represented the name of the brand; on the other side Robin was
interested in its signified: in her opinion, the silk was a metaphor for a
female body (because of its voluptuous curves and sensual textures) and the cut
was a vagina, but it could also allude to a rape. Victor couldn't believe his
hears and he didn't even know what a metaphor was.   She explained it, saying that it was a figure
of speech used to speak about something trough another object, somehow
associated to the first one; what is more, she added that metaphor was
frequently used in advertising agencies, like metonymy. In particular, this
device was chosen by another cigarette-brand (the one Victor always bought) and
consisted of using a word (a part, a cause, an effect of something) suggesting
another one: in this case, a cow-boy was used in order to express force, health
and freedom. As a consequence, it seemed to the consumer as if he could become
strong and keep healthy if buying these cigarettes. Victor went on saying that
her words were rubbish but, to tell the truth, he became upset and pretended ,
not to be interested in the power of semiotic stuff.