Metaphor in Political Discourse

Abstract

In this chapter I will develop the argument that in political contexts metaphor can be, and often is, used for ideological purposes because it activates unconscious emotional associations and thereby contributes to myth creation: politicians use metaphor to tell the right story. I explain my understanding of the term ‘metaphor’ and provide a number of illustrations of the everyday, conventional metaphors that are the bread and butter of political language. I hope to demonstrate how, rhetorically, metaphors contribute to mental representations of political issues, making alternative ways of understanding these issues more difficult and in so doing ‘occupy’ the mind. However, I will also explain how metaphors are contested by illustrating how the same type of metaphor may be used by a politician’s critics to convey a completely different evaluation from the one that was originally intended. In doing this I hope to show — both in this chapter and the remainder of the book — how analysis of metaphors contributes to our knowledge of political rhetoric by enabling us to understand how world views are communicated persuasively in language.