On the role of the metaphor

Linking literature and language learning in L1 education

Abstract

The research question guiding this article reflects an aspiration to elaborate and deepen the understanding of how Michael Polanyi’s theoretical framework can enhance the integration of literature and language education. We ask: In what ways do the concepts of personal knowledge and joint meaning, as articulated by Polanyi, contribute to the enhancement of language comprehension within the context of literature education? In the pursuit of answering this question, we first aim to reveal the centrality of the use of metaphors specifically in literature and generally in the development of proficiency in spoken and written language. Secondly, the aim is to present and discuss how Paul Ricoeur's and Polanyi's phenomenologically oriented metaphor theories interlink. The third aim is to show how insight into Polanyian key concepts “personal knowledge” and “joint meaning” may help L1 / Language arts teachers to facilitate and world-orient their teaching. The latter question is explored empirically by analysing empirical data from ethnographic fieldwork of how teachers and senior college students in upper secondary Nordic classroom contexts attribute meaning to three works of literary aesthetic art: a poem, a short story and a play by the Norwegian, awarded authors Stein Mehren and Jon Fosse. Among other aspects, we find that teaching Fosse illuminates Polanyi's main point about the linkage between language and literature learning. For discussion, we argue that a Polanyian approach may help the L1 field overcome the “dyadic split” of separating language and literature in L1 teaching into completely distinct domains.