Abstract
Over the past three decades cognitive approaches to literature has been in the center of attention. These approaches include the development of methodologies for describing both the production and reception of literary texts. Metaphor has been important for understanding the workings of the mind throughout the cognitive disciplines. George Lakoff
and Mark Johnson in their book, Metaphors We Live By (1980), define conceptual metaphors as our means of understanding abstract concepts in terms of more concrete ones. Many authors deploy literary devices like metaphor and irony to convey their meanings. The current study will analyze that metaphor is used to describe the indescribable phenomena such as, slavery, racism and especially double oppression on black women in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) and Colson whitehead’s The Underground Railroad (2016). By using metaphorical language, these authors provide a critique of the white domination to change the consciousness of the oppressed women and to manifest what they are in contrast to what they should be. The result indicates that Whitehead has given life to the same slavery story of Uncle Tom’s Cabin which faded into obscurity over centuries to emotionally engage a global audience at the present time to remind that all these oppressions exist even today.
Key Words: Cognitive Linguistics, Metaphor, Slavery, Freedom, Black feminism.
