Death-defying Personifications

1
Death-defying Personifications
The Grim Reaper vs. La Grande Faucheuse
By Ms. Freeda Wilson and Dr. Lorin Card, UBC
Okanagan For LACUS Conference, Toronto, August
2006
2
Thesis
From a cultural and psychological perspective, we
would expect the English and French
personifications of death to be semantically and
visually similar if they are both based on the
concept of reaping.
3
French and English
Conceptual Similarities   Peoples lives are like
plants lives (life cycle) Reaping/Harvest is
Death of plant (Plant Death same as Human
Death)    
Cultural Similarities   Dependence on
Reaping/Grain for existence Christianity Experienc
e with mass deaths i.e. The Black Plague
Cognitive Mapping Reaping maps Plant Death onto
Human Death
4
Concept FormationDiagram French English Reaper
Human Death
manner specific event of dying
Causal Tautology
empty cause CAUSE elements of
class of events
Killer
killer CAUSE dying kills victim
Reaper
Death
reaper CAUSE being cut down reaps plant
death in general CAUSE event of dying by specific
means person who dies
Death The (Grim) Reaper Reaping/Killing/Causes
Death Plant/Victim/Person Who Dies
As put forth by cognitive linguistic theory
under the term conceptual integration
5
One Representation of the Reaper in English
Literature
The Reaper and the Flowers
There is a Reaper whose name is Death, And, with
his sickle keen, He reaps the bearded grain at a
breath, And the flowers that grow
between. Shall I have nought that is fair?''
saith he Have nought but the bearded
grain? Though the breath of these flowers is
sweet to me, I will give them all back
again.'' He gazed at the flowers with tearful
eyes, He kissed their drooping leaves It was
for the Lord of Paradise He bound them in his
sheaves.  My Lord has need of these flowerets
gay,'' The Reaper said, and smiled Dear
tokens of the earth are they, Where he was once
a child. 
They shall all bloom in fields of
light, Transplanted by my care, And saints,
upon their garments white, These sacred blossoms
wear.'' And the mother gave, in tears and
pain, The flowers she most did love She knew
she should find them all again In the fields of
light above. O, not in cruelty, not in
wrath, The Reaper came that day 'Twas an angel
visited the green earth, And took the flowers
away. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807-1882
6
One Representation of La Faucheuse in French
Literature
Mors
Je vis cette faucheuse. Elle était dans son
champ. Elle allait à grands pas moissonnant et
fauchant, Noir squelette laissant passer le
crépuscule. Dans l'ombre où l'on dirait que tout
tremble et recule, L'homme suivait des yeux les
lueurs de la faulx.Et les triomphateurs sous les
arcs triomphaux Tombaient elle changeait en
désert Babylone, Le trône en échafaud et
l'échafaud en trône, Les roses en fumier, les
enfants en oiseaux,L'or en cendre, et les yeux
des mères en ruisseaux. Et les femmes criaient
- Rends-nous ce petit être. Pour le faire
mourir, pourquoi l'avoir fait naître ? -Ce
n'était qu'un sanglot sur terre, en haut, en bas
Des mains aux doigts osseux sortaient des noirs
grabats Un vent froid bruissait dans les
linceuls sans nombre Les peuples éperdus
semblaient sous la faulx sombre Un troupeau
frissonnant qui dans l'ombre s'enfuit Tout
était sous ses pieds deuil, épouvante et
nuit.Derrière elle, le front baigné de douces
flammes, Un ange souriant portait la gerbe
d'âmes.
Victor Hugo, 1802-1885
7
17th Century carving above the door of St.
Andrew Church, Barningham UK - 1640 -
Evidence of the skeleton, scythe, hourglass,
as well as possible cloak, etc.
8
14th Century
Lavaudieu, France in the St-André church a
painting entitled The Black Death, which dates
back to 1355. Clearly represented as a woman
the figure of Death.
9
Unknown French artist of the 17th century.
Introduction of scythe but still no skeleton
10
Conclusion
Today figurine sold on ebay (France)
Visual image is very effeminate, eyes are
darkened, and hands and arms not clearly skeletal.

11
References
Bonomini, "An Allegory of Death".
1836. Fauconnier, Gilles and Mark Turner. A
Mechanism of Creativity. Poetics Today 20.3
(1999) 397-418. ---. The Way We
Think Conceptual Blending and the Minds Hidden
Complexities. New York Perseus Books Group,
2002. Gibbs, Raymond W., Jr. The Poetics of the
Mind Figurative Thought, Language, and
Understanding. New York, NY Cambridge University
Press, 1994. Guillaume, Eugène. Le faucheur (The
Reaper), sculpture, 1849. Kövecses, Zoltán.
Metaphor A practical Introduction. New York
Oxford University Press, 2002. ---. . Metaphor
in Culture Universality and Variation. USA
Cambridge University Press, 2005. Lakoff, George.
The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor. Metaphor
and Thought. 2nd ed. Ed. A. Ortony. Cambridge
Cambridge University Press, 1993.
202-251. Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson.
Metaphors We Live By. Chicago The University
of Chicago Press, 1980. Lakoff, George, and Mark
Turner. More than Cool Reason A Field Guide to
Poetic Metaphor. Chicago The University of
Chicago Press, 1989. Lakoff, George. Women, Fire
and Dangerous Things. Chicago The University
of Chicago Press, 1987. Personifications of
Death. Encyclopedia of Death. Ed. Robert
Kastenbaum and Beatrice Kastenbaum. Phoenix
Orynx Press, 1989. http//www.lamortdanslart.com/d
ivers/divers.htm http//www.norfolkcoast.co.uk/cur
iosities/cu_grimreaper.htm (Crosbee, Steven. St.
Andrew Church, Barningham UK, 1640). http//www.pa
ntheon.org/areas/gallery/folklore/folklore/grim_re
aper.html http//www.vaes.vt.edu/steeles/mccormick
/harvest.html
12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
Universal vs. Variations
Initial or Base Concept
People are Plants ? Universal Reaping Death ?
Culture Specific
Variations of Concept
Variations of Usage
Culture Specific Gender Skeleton Blindness Role
Choosing vs. Killing Selective vs. Random
Culture Specific Human vs nonhuman (ie
business) Car accident victim (ie tv
news) Medical term Mythology Meaning of Grim vs.
Grande
15
19th century Italian painting Pauolo Bonomini,
"An Allegory of Death". 1836. Italian Influence
in mid-1800s (incidentally it is simply la morte
in Italian) Scythe, hourglass, and skeleton.
16
http//www.firstworldwar.com/photos/sketches.htm
17
19th Century Statue of reaper France museum