On the metaphorical/literal dichotomy: rethinking the issue of primacy

Abstract

In this paper we aim to rethink the metaphorical/literal dichotomy trying, at the same time, to weaken it and to point to the impossibility of it being overcome, at least in certain sense. In order to do so, we consider some important reflections already made along the history of Western thought, giving a particular emphasis to the remarks by Jacques Derrida on that theme. Finally, we assert that the search for a more original or fundamental sense to which language should, ultimately, remit, always implicates, paradoxically, in the production of new senses whose prolixity is not possible to stop. That prolixity, on the other hand, manifests itself only as a proposition of a new beginning ¾ a saying that establishes itself concretely.