The Metaphor of the Body as a House in 19th Century English Novels

Abstract

The paper aims at identifying the way in which the human body functions as a metaphor for the concept of the house. The metaphorical process will be approached from a semiopoetic perspective, while the textual support will be provided by such novels as: Great Expectations, Dombey and Son, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens, The Return of the Native, by Thomas Hardy, Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë, Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë. Clothes will be approached as extensions, boundaries and modifiers of the human body and of the way in which human bodies are perceived