Metaphor to Narrative Ricoeur has conveyed a number of ways to approach the reading of a text, and in doing so he has noted several important points involved in our understanding of interpretation theory or hermeneutics, the turn to metaphor as the key to understanding, and the turn from metaphor, that that of the narrative. Ultimately, Ricoeur seems to be trying to achieve the highest level in which a person can arrive at an accurate understanding of an object, or another subject, in turn, allowing one to also attain a level of self-understanding.
We have established that there is already an existing double distanciation between what an author precisely thinks and want to say and what is actually written down in a text - the said, and what is included in an author's text and how a reader interprets it. It is a double distanciation. Intially, Ricoeur turns to metaphor to help bridge the gap caused by this distanciation since metaphor opens us to a new world of meaning and attempts to explain what is less familiar with that which is more familiar to us.
English: Drawing of the metaphor, stylistic device...
Cyclone as metaphor for political revolution (elec...
English: A wrecking ball reading "millions of year...Nonetheless, Ricoeur goes beyond metaphor as the key to understanding and begins to advocate that narrative is the solution. Metaphor and narrative are similar in that a metaphor can be recognized as a form of narrative, and although metaphor provides insights to our own understanding it is not as complete as a narrative approach. For Ricoeur, a narrative is more real; it is something we can relate to personally and with our own experiences more readily than metaphor. A narrative involves providing accounts of plots, which in turn make up stories. These stories are precisely our own lived experiences, wherein a narrative about such stories concerns itself with our life-long process...