The accounting meta-metaphor of the Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot

Abstract

Purpose: Using the theory of sensibility and McClelland et al.’s (2013) metaphorical analysis, this study aims to analyse the accounting metaphors and meta-metaphor of The Hollow Men, a poem written by T. S. Eliot.

Design/methodology/approach The analysis uses McClelland et al.’s (2013) five-step procedure to ascertain the poem’s metaphor use.

Findings: The Hollow Men depicts accountants as ritualistic and accounting voices as quiet and meaningless while its meta-metaphor conveys accounting as rites and shadows.

Research limitations/implications: Although The Hollow Men’s use of Form 4 metaphors, where neither figurative nor literal source term is named, places an onus on the reader to infer meaning from accounting metaphor use, the analysis provides readers with a valuable structure for evincing accounting metaphors that present pervasive accounting issues facing the modern world.

Practical implications: Accountants, according to The Hollow Men, are hollow, devotees to plunderers and property and rain dancers. The Hollow Men situates the quest for accounting as a ritual for order and the preservation of the status quo.

Social implications: The Hollow Men’s mages of accounting immersion in rites and shadows accord with the conceptual metaphors of accounting as magic and accounting as history.

Originality/value: The originality of this study rests in its introduction to McClelland et al.’s (2013) metaphorical analysis of accounting research.