ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a survey of metaphors related to history and time collected from literature, history, and philosophy since the 1950s in order to discern what they might reveal about shifts in recent historical paradigms. It focuses on historiographic and philosophical sources, which have a different understanding of the parameters of the postmodern era. The chapter suggests that there are more metaphors on the postmodern palette than either Elizabeth Deeds Ermarth, Amy Elias, or Elisabeth Wesseling have suggested. It also focuses on three areas of "metaphoric discussion" which seem to strike at the heart of postmodern sensibilities about history. Metaphors of history and time are closely linked, since time is perceived to be the element in which history unfolds. The chapter considers a familiar linear approach to the evolution of gaming metaphors in history, although the careful reader will note that these metaphors resist standing in a neat chronological line, despite efforts to organize them that way.
