trope

English translation: uses the encompassing sands as a metaphor

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

English term or phrase:	trope
Selected answer:	uses the encompassing sands as a metaphor
Entered by:	B D Finch

15:41 Jan 20, 2014

English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature

English term or phrase: trope

But there is more to the story than media accounts of wars and aggression, carried out at times under the banner of the coerced United Nations, and we find it in literature. For instance, in his ironic narrative The Sultan of Sleep (Sult.a¯n al-nawm, 1994), the Jordanian nov-elist Mu’nis al-Razza¯z gives Desert Storm the trope of encompassing sands that leave no space untouched, including his own room. Much more than any discipline, or even the enormous effort of social scien-tists, literature propagates the markers and trademarks of globaliza-tion, but it also creates a counterdiscourse that enriches old registers and broadens the prospects for new ones. In the following pages I use Ibrahim’s Committee as the primary text around which other texts clus-ter. The Committee, especially in its emphasis on “Coca-Colonization” and “world-wide cultural standardization,” has significance for cultural studies, too.6 Like many works in Arabic, The Committee should be cen-tral not only to any study of old colonialism, neocolonial globalism, nation-states, nationalism, identity, social and economic patterns, and predictions and expectations but also to any reading of the national and transnational imaginary and of the proliferation of certain images and terms.

Mariam Abdullah

uses the encompassing sands as a metaphor

Explanation:
The novelist Mu’nis al-Razza¯z uses "encompassing sands that leave no space untouched, including his own room" as a metaphor for Desert Storm.

Selected response from:

B D Finch
France
Local time: 04:40

Grading comment

4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED

4 +1

portrays Desert Sands as a scenario filled with

Jenni Lukac (X)

4 +1

uses the encompassing sands as a metaphor

B D Finch

portrays Desert Storm through

Arthur Kölzow

figurative role

Tony M

Answers

8 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

portrays Desert Sands as a scenario filled with

Explanation:
One option.
Full Definition of TROPE

1
a : a word or expression used in a figurative sense : figure of speechhttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trope

Jenni Lukac (X)
Local time: 04:40
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 167

10 mins confidence:

figurative role

Explanation:
NS OED:

1) A figure of speech consisting in the use of w word or phrase in a sense other than that which is proper to it; gen. a figurative use of a word; figurative or metaphorical language

...

3) An argument advanced by a sceptic

I confess I have trouble understanding what the writer is actually trying to say here; but it seems to me that operation Desert Storm is being considered as a figurative usage of that term, which would normally of course refer literally to sand that blows everywhere. That's the best I can do!

I gave the NS OED's definition #3 above too, though I don't believe that would really be the usage applicable here

(the other definitions are not relevant in this sort of context)

Tony M
France
Local time: 04:40
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 260

3 hrs confidence:

portrays Desert Storm through

Explanation:
The original is oddly stated, but your goal here is to show that the sand and whatnot is being portrayed through something else. And so, I, as well as one of the other commentators, prefers that to be be more explicit.

Arthur Kölzow
United States
Local time: 21:40
Native speaker of: English

5 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

uses the encompassing sands as a metaphor

Explanation:
The novelist Mu’nis al-Razza¯z uses "encompassing sands that leave no space untouched, including his own room" as a metaphor for Desert Storm.

B D Finch
France
Local time: 04:40
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 84

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trope

English translation: uses the encompassing sands as a metaphor

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