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PARTISAN REVIEW
search" is a meta phor , "the bird" is a meta pho r. Bu t wha t is
in ge ni ous about Ka fk a's cage is the unexpected me tonymy, no t the
conventional symbolism a nd meta pho r.
*
The meta pho ric reading of
thi s a phori sm is trivi al.
Meta pho r is based on the tra nsfe rence o f meanings, on
simila rity or the illusion of simila rity. M etonymy is based on the
rela ti ons of conti guity a nd success ion . M oreover , as Fraze r had
described long before the structura lists a nd sema nti cists, metonymy
is ma rked by the rela tion o f contagion a nd contamina ti on. Dread o f
miasma
is born of the metonymic imagina ti on . Ka fk a kn ew thi s fea r
a nd thi s dread .
The rel a tion be twee n the pred a to r a nd its prey, betwee n the
hunter a nd the hunted , is a lso metonymic . The rel a ti on between the
cage a nd the bird is me tonymi c . The searching cage-above-all is
metonymy in mo ti on.
L 'imaginaire
is reality.
IV
The striking a nd revealing me tonymy, whi ch des troys allegory ,
is even more ev ident in Ka fk a's "Four Legends C once rning
Prometheus." According to the first lege nd , "Prometheus was
cha ined to a rock in the C a ucasus for betray ing the sec rets of the
gods to men , a nd the gods sent eagles to feed on hi s li ve r , whi ch was
perpetua lly renewed ." According to the second , "Prometheus ,
goaded by the pa in of the tearing beaks, pressed himsel f deeper a nd
deeper into the rock until he became one with it. "
The end of Prome theus is the end of mythology. "There
rema ined the inexpli cable mass of rock ."
In
Mi chel a ngelo's
unfinished sta tues of the Slaves, their bodies, as if in the pa ngs of
birth , struggle to break out of the blocks o f stone. Ka fk a's vision is
different : Prometheu s is one with the rock. The end of Prometheus
a nd the end of the myth is
stasis.
The metonymy of the end is the
undifferenti a ted mounta in of stone.
The mounta in under the empty sky rema ins as the last imprint
o f myth . K a fka's metonymy found its final drama tic fulfillment in
Beckett's stas is .
In
Happy Days
a woma n sinks into a mound of sand
under a n empty sky .
Ka fka's Poseidon has also been stripped o f his mythological
a ttire. "Pose idon sat a t his desk do ing fi gures. The admini stra tion of
' Ka fka despised literary metaphors. He wrote in his dial-yon Decembe r 6, 192 1,
"Metaphors are among many thin gs which make me despair of writing."
