Linked Words, Linked Worlds: Metaphor(ic) Transformation as Intertextual Narrative Strategy in Rewrites of Shakespeare’s Plays

ABSTRACT This article investigates metaphor in adaptation: not just how individual metaphors may evolve from a source text to its rewrite, but also how metaphoricity features in the rewrite author’s positioning of the two works. Previous research has shown how metaphor can be integral to structuring narrative; this research shows how metaphor could also be key to structuring the intertextuality of narrative. As such, attention is given to the narrative strategies behind metaphor variation linked to changed settings, characterization, and themes and behind crossings in metaphoricity—the literal in the source text becoming metaphorical in the rewrite, or vice versa—that contribute to an implicit commentary on the source text. Using Doležel’s world-based typology of postmodern rewrites as a basis for exploring metaphor(ic) transformation, this article draws from modern rewrites of Macbeth and King Lear to show how metaphor is narratively significant as a channel of intertextual positioning.