This special issue of Symbolism: An International Annual of Critical Aesthetics explores the various functions of metaphor in life writing. Looking at a range of autobiographical subgenres (pathography, disability narratives, memoirs of migration, autofiction) and different kinds of metaphors, the contributions seek to ‘map’ the possibilities of metaphor for narratively framing an individual life and for constructing notions of selfhood.

A Booklist Top 10 First Novels of 2012 pick A Bookpage Best Books of 2012 pick “A richly emotional portrait of a family that had me spellbound from page one.”—Cheryl Strayed, bestselling author of Wild The night before Janie’s sister, Hannah, is born, her grandmother tells her a story: Since the Japanese occupation of Korea, their family has lost a daughter in every generation, and Janie is told to keep Hannah safe. Years later, when Hannah inexplicably cuts all ties and disappears, Janie goes to find her. Thus begins a journey that will force her to confront her family’s painful silence, the truth behind her parents’ sudden move to America twenty years earlier, and her own conflicted feelings toward Hannah. Weaving Korean folklore within a modern narrative of immigration and identity, Forgotten Country is a fierce exploration of the inevitability of loss, the conflict between obligation and freedom, and a family struggling to find its way out of silence and back to one another.

This book by Shirley Plessner, which was first published in 1956, was compiled in response to numerous requests for informative material about the symbols, terms, and stories of the Order of Eastern Star. The Order of the Eastern Star is a Masonic appendant body open to both men and women. It was established in 1850 by lawyer and educator Rob Morris, a noted Freemason, but was only adopted and approved as an appendant body of the Masonic Fraternity in 1873. The order is based on teachings from the Bible, but is open to people of all religious beliefs. It has approximately 10,000 chapters in twenty countries and approximately 500,000 members under its General Grand Chapter. “This book contains a complete discussion of the whole biblical account from which the teachings of the Order of Eastern Star are derived. Like all such interpretations, no effort is made to establish it as the one and only interpretation. Each discussion is a collection of ideas which are designed to assist the reader in forming his own conclusions concerning each selection. This book also contains the Bible passages from which our symbols, emblems, terms and stories have been taken. All of the information in this book has been alphabetically arranged to make this information readily accessible. “Use this book to find the answers to your questions about the symbols, emblems, terms, and legends associated with the work of our Order.”

Offers photograph illustrations and essays on numerous symbols and symbolic imagery, exploring their archetypal meanings as well as cultural and historical context for how different groups have interpreted them.

This special issue of Symbolism: An International Annual of Critical Aesthetics explores the various functions of metaphor in life writing. Looking at a range of autobiographical subgenres (pathography, disability narratives, memoirs of migration, autofiction) and different kinds of metaphors, the contributions seek to ‘map’ the possibilities of metaphor for narratively framing an individual life and for constructing notions of selfhood.