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

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.