Special issue on the political impact of metaphors

Abstract

In the wake of Lakoff and Johnson’s seminal work (1980), much attention has been devoted to the study of metaphors not as rhetorical figures, but as conceptual tools to express a complex reality in more familiar terms. While conceptual metaphors occur in every area of life, the political domain remains a particularly rich source of metaphors. As Semino puts it: “It is often claimed that the use of metaphor is particularly necessary in politics, since politics is an abstract and complex do- main of experience, and metaphors can provide ways of simplifying complexi- ties and making abstractions accessible” (2008, p.90). Moreover, “if metaphor is at the heart of cognitive framing then it should be crucial to political study” (De Landtsheer, 2009, p. 60).