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.

Citation

Brown, A.M. (2021), "The accounting meta-metaphor of the Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot", Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 26-52. https://doi.org/10.1108/QRAM-10-2019-0113