argues that ‘ accumulating evidence suggests that “ creative ” people make heavy use of conventional , everyday metaphors and that their creativity and originality actually derive from them ’ and in understanding this argument one would believe that this essay has confirmed that logic ( Kövecses 2010 : 52 ). Having said this , metaphors in Hamilton are not only present to serve the purpose of making the musical ’ s heavy content relatable in bite size commonplace phrases , but to display it in a sophisticated and poetic way that matches up to that of more traditional literature . Miranda ’ s creativity with language across the songs in Hamilton is therefore twofold ; it allows audiences to follow the story , and it allows Miranda to explain certain storylines and contexts in a more dynamic way . Miranda ’ s consistent use of metaphors such as Hamilton ’ s ‘ shot ’ or the war imagery that manifests itself in one way or another throughout all the songs in the musical demonstrate how central the idea is of experiencing one thing in terms of another is . After all , saying ‘ I ’ m just like my country , I ’ m young , scrappy and hungry , and I ’ m not throwin ’ away my shot !’ sounds a lot more compelling to an audience …
Bibliography Beggs , Alex ( 2015 ) ‘ Read Lin-Manuel Miranda ’ s Genius Annotations for Hamilton ’, Vanity Fair ,
Debczak , Michele ( 2015 ) ‘ Hamilton Uses Hip-Hop to Fit More Than 20,000 Words Into 2.5 Hours ’, Mental Floss
Harding , Jennifer ( 2017 ) ‘ The
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Poetics of Hamilton ’, Babel : The Language Magazine ,
Kovecses , Zoltan ( 2010 ) Metaphor : A Practical Introduction , Oxford , NY : Oxford University Press .
Lakoff , George . and Johnson , Mark . ( 1980 ) Metaphors We Live By , Chicago , IL : University of Chicago Press .
McNulty , Charles ( 2015 ) ‘ Critic ’ s Notebook : ‘ Hamilton ’ s ’ revolutionary power is in its hip-hop musical numbers ’, LA Times ,
Miranda , Lin Manuel ( 2015 ) ‘ Hamilton : An American Musical ( Original Broadway Cast Recording )’, Genius . com
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Amy Holbrook English UG
Amy graduated with a first class honours degree in English , choosing to keep an equal weighting between Language and Literature modules throughout her course . Her dissertation was a critical discourse analysis comparing media coverage of Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton . Amy is looking to complete a TEFL qualification to extend her love of English by teaching it as a foreign language .
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