Absolute Metaphors and Metaphors of the Maternal

The pregnant female body and, more generally, the generative process tout court have been linked with metaphor since the dawn of Western philosophy, though this history has only recently been taken up and critically discussed (Rigotti 2010; Cavarero 1995). The research hypothesis I test in this paper is that pregnancy and childbirth ought to be considered as absolute metaphors, as per their “indissoluble alogicality” (Blumenberg 2010). Following the analyses presented in Paradigms for a Metaphorology, the goal of the article is to enhance dialogue between Blumenberg’s conception of metaphor and philosophical reflections that have focused on the pervasiveness of metaphors concerning pregnancy and childbirth. This paper is therefore an investigation into the movement linking female reproductive functions to philosophical knowledge.