Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale

Metaphors: Conceptualising Horizons of Meaning

open access | peer reviewed
Abstract

At the core of human thought and expression lies the profound capacity of metaphor – the act of understanding one concept in terms of another. However, over the last decade, in response to the socio-political and ecological realities of the ‘Anthropocene’, disciplines like anthropology have also pointed at the limitations of human thought, highlighting its fundamental role in large scale planetary destruction. These critical enquiries into modes of thought beyond the human such as in Eduardo Kohn’s path breaking work with indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon forests, challenged our perceptions about the ‘field’ of thinking and communication as the sole domain of humans. It is with such a renewed orientation of metaphors that we organised our PhD symposium, Metaphors: Conceptualising Horizons of Meaning, held from the 26th to the 28th of February 2024 at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. The present volume aims at exploring some of these perspectives. The symposium was the result of a collective endeavour by the doctoral candidates of the PhD in Asian and African Studies, XXXVIII cycle, at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice: Rebecca Ciattini, Wenxin Jin, Cien Liang, Laura Locatelli, Michele Pulini, Michele Scarlassara, Kesang Thakur, and Claudia Zancan.

Keywords Horizon • Japanese literature • China • Climate change • Chinese • Community of shared future for humankind • Édouard Glissant • Human body • Urban art • Ethnography • Site-specific art • Metaphor • Chinese neologisms • It is with such a renewed orientation of metaphors • Pedagogy • Environmental Humanities • Decolonization • The present volume aims at exploring some of these • Visual metaphors • Coloniality • Foreign language • However, over the last decade, in response to the • Space diplomacy • Gandhāran art • Encounter • Cosmogony • The symposium was the result of a collective endea • Sea-level rise • Critical Ocean Studies • Contemporary poetry • Urban space • Metaphorical narrative • Figurations • Creative writing • Medieval Daoism • Climate Im/Mobility Studies • Aquatic imagery • Avant-garde • Buddhist architecture • <p>At the core of human thought and expression lie • Feminist writing • At the core of human thought and expression lies t • Sacred geography • Nirvāṇa • Common destiny • These critical enquiries into modes of thought bey • Cave • Metaphors

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2025/03 | Published Nov. 14, 2025 | Language en

Copyright © Wenxin Jin, Rebecca Ciattini, Laura Locatelli, Michele Pulini, Kesang Thakur, Claudia Zancan. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.