Political Language and Metaphor: Interpreting and changing the world

by Terrell Carver (Editor), Jernej Pikalo (Editor)

Overview

Until a century ago, a metaphor was just a mere figure of speech, but since the development of discourse analysis a metaphor has become more than merely incidental to the content of the arguments or findings. Students and scholars in political studies know the importance of metaphors in electoral and policy-related politics, coming across metaphors that are, knowingly or unknowingly, influencing our perception of politics.

This book is the first to develop new methodological approaches to understand and analyse the use of metaphor in political science and international relations. It does this by:

• Combining theory with case studies in order to advance substantive work in politics and international relations that focuses on metaphor
• Expands the range of empirical case studies that employ this category descriptively and also in explanatory logic
• Advances research that investigates the role of metaphor in empirical and discourse-based methodologies, thus building on results from other disciplines, notably linguistics and hermeneutic philosophy.

This innovative study will be of interest to students and researchers of politics, international relations and communication studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415663762
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	02/02/2011
Series:	Routledge Innovations in Political Theory
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	310
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Terrell Carver is Professor of Political Theory at the University of Bristol, UK.

Jernej Pikalo is Lecturer in Political Theory at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Table of Contents

Part 1: Science 1. The Ways of Stargazing: Newtonian Metaphoricity in American Foreign Policy 2. Slippery Slopes in Political Discourse 3. Mechanical Metaphors in Politics Part 2: Structures 4. Metaphors of Social Order 5. Metaphors of Solidarity 6. Exploring the Metaphorical (De-)Construction of Legitimacy Part 3: Europe 7. Identifying and Assessing Metaphors 8. Discursive Metaphor Analysis 9. Political Protest and Metaphor Part 4: Sexuality 10. Real Construction through Metaphorical Language: How Animals and Machines (Amongst other Metaphors) Maketh (Hu)Man (What ‘He’ Is) 11. Data, Anecdote and Metaphor in Gender Equality Policy-Making: Merging ‘Intellectual and Real World Mainstreaming’ 12. Metaphors, Mini-Narratives and Foucauldian Discourse Theory Part 5: Policy 13. Metaphor, Catachresis and Equivalence 14. Love and Life in Heartless Town 15. Cognition Meets Action Part 6: Language 16. The Application of Conceptual Metaphor Theory to Political Discourse: Methodological Questions and Some Possible Solutions 17. Metaphorical Moves: ‘Scientific Expertise’ in Research Policy Studies 18. A Metaphorical Election Style