Speeding in Time: Philosophy and Metaphor in a Presentation of Okhrannaia gramota Part One 6

In Pasternak's writings there is a tension between philosophy and poetry. The question posed here, and based on extracts from the autobiographical "Ochrannaja gramota" ("A Safe-Conduct", 1931), is whether the dense and multiple metaphor in Pasternak’s work can be understood as having a heuristic function, of expressing original thought and contributing to new understanding, or whether it is confusing and obscure, an impediment to thought and in the last analysis to be interpreted ’only’ in a sensual, impressionistic way.

Paul Ricoeur’s "The Rule of Metaphor" from 1975 provides a far-reaching theory of the heuristic value of metaphor, based in the conviction that metaphor is fundamental for the way language works. There is striking compatibility between Ricoeur’s theory and Pasternak’s practice of metaphor.