Metaphorical Representation Research Articles

The Rhetoric of Healthcare and the Moral Debate About Theatre-Funded Hospitals in Early Modern Spain.

While early modern Spain may seem a world away, it is an extremely rich and relevant context for gaining a better understanding of the Rhetoric of Health, specifically the power of metaphor, in the related spheres of policy-making and public debate. It was a time and place in which the urban populace's physical well-being depended upon the fortunes of theatrical performances due to a system of alms for hospitals driven by ticket receipts. Anti-theatricalists argued that the immoral nature of theatrical performances made them spiritually and medically detrimental to society. Pro-theatricalists argued that plays were always a public good on balance because they raised much-needed funds for hospitals. Instead of producing a conflict between morality and public health, each side reinforced their connection until the two topics became nearly inseparable in the sphere of public debate. While pro-theatricalists mainly stayed with their arguments about funding hospitals, anti-theatricalists developed a new strategy of literalising the metaphor of theatre as a "plague of the republic" and arguing that immoral entertainment brought literal disease to the populace as a punishment from God. This exemplifies Stephen Pender's observation of how, in an early modern medical context, "Rhetoric as a way of perceiving probabilities and adjusting one's argument to the audience and circumstance offers a model of ethical action and interaction". This article is organised chronologically to track specific adjustments to a specific public-health debate that rely upon moral metaphors of medicine. Each side wrangled over these metaphors in an effort to break a deadlock in a public-health policy debate with entertainment, finance, and morality at its centre. By the end of the seventeenth century, anti-theatricalists finally found their best rhetorical weapon in the literalisation of the "plague of the republic" metaphor, but it only offered a short-term solution to banning theatre contingent upon the ebb and flow of epidemics. Simultaneously, the finance structure of funding hospitals began to erase the role of hospitals from the longstanding debate about the morality of public theatre. The case of early modern Spain provides valuable lessons about the power of metaphor in the Rhetoric of Healthcare that are still applicable today.

Metaphoric Representations in Saudi GIF-based Cartoons

Metaphoric Representations in Saudi GIF-based Cartoons

Political Expression in Non-mainstream Metaphorical Music:Exploring the Metaphorical Musical Works of Hong Kong, China-based Artist Wong Yiu Ming

The intensification of authoritarian ideology and censorship in China has made it increasingly challenging to communicate politically sensitive messages through cultural products (Ye and Zhao, 2023). To navigate these constraints, it is crucial to examine the strategic use of political metaphors in music. This dissertation explores the political metaphors embedded in the musical oeuvre of Wong Yiu-Ming (Anthony Wong), a prominent artist from Hong Kong, China. Through a comprehensive analysis of imagery and textual content, this study investigates how these metaphors facilitate the expression of political orientations and assesses the impact of Wong's identity and actions on his audience. The findings suggest that non-mainstream music holds a distinct political significance compared to mainstream music. Metaphorical representations in non-mainstream music effectively challenge state power by circumventing censorship, leveraging the global industrial network, enabling political expression, and aligning with the artist's multifaceted identity.

Метафорическая концептуализация экономических отношений в публицистическом дискурсе финансово-экономической нестабильности (на материалах англоязычных публикаций, отражающих кризис потолка госдолга в США в 2023 г.)

The article examines the metaphorical conceptualization of a crisis economic situation in mass media discourse. The article looks at the metaphorical representation of economic relationships in the period of financial uncertainty caused by the inflation and the debt ceiling crisis in the USA in 2023. The aim of the research is to determine and describe the most relevant metaphorical models depicting the economic phenomena in the given historical period. The scientific novelty lies in describing the ways of metaphorical conceptualization of economic relationships in mass media discourse brought to life by new empirical data of the debt ceiling crisis. The research findings include describing the most relevant metaphorical models that depict the economic phenomena in the articles of The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist; determining the nominative field of the target concept ECONOMY; extending the corpus of metaphors from crisis discourse and identifying the primary functions of the metaphors used in the texts under the study.

Metaphorical Representation of the Posthuman in Mary E. Pearson’s Novel “The Adoration of Jenna Fox”

Metaphorical Representation of the Posthuman in Mary E. Pearson’s Novel “The Adoration of Jenna Fox”

“Welcome to shege banza”

Abstract This paper examines the forms and functions of Internet memes relating to the fuel subsidy removal policy of Nigeria´s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, with a view to identifying the conceptual metaphors that underlie the creation of the memes. The data, which consist of fifty memes shared in the Nigerian WhatsApp space, are analysed qualitatively using aspects of Kress and van Leeuwen´s (2001) multimodal discourse analysis and Forceville´s (2015) multimodal metaphor theory. The findings reveal that the discourse, design and production of the multimodal resources enhance the conceptualization of the metaphorical representations in the memes. The study also shows the prevalence of the metaphors: fuel subsidy removal is a fraud, fuel subsidy removal is poverty and fuel subsidy removal is inequality among other conceptual metaphors to explain the people´s negative disposition towards the fuel subsidy removal policy. The study concludes that the forms and functions of the subsidy removal-related memes assist in revealing the multimodal conceptual metaphors underlying the memes.

Taking the temperature of time: The influence of temperature on people's metaphorical perspectives on time through emotion

AbstractSpace provides the conceptual scaffolding for the understanding of time. Customarily, the movement of events in time is metaphorically conceptualized from two spatial perspectives: the ego‐moving perspective that envisions an observer moving towards a stationary future and the time‐moving perspective that envisages the future moving towards a stationary observer. Extensive work has shown that emotions of opposite valence can yield contrary temporal perspective preferences. Relatedly, much evidence suggests that physical warmth and coldness prompt antithetical emotional evaluations. Threading together these two strands of insights, the current research explored whether ambient temperatures would influence people's metaphorical perspectives on time through a common link to emotion. Study 1 suggested that when deciphering two temporally ambiguous statements, people in warmer spring preferred the ego‐moving perspective, whilst those in colder winter favoured the time‐moving perspective. To determine a causal effect and test the hypothesized underlying mechanism of emotion, Study 2 examined the priming effect of temperature on temporal perspective preferences and emotional states. The results showed that differential temperatures induced opposite emotional responses, which in turn prompted diametric perspectives on time. These findings were replicated in Study 3 using an alternative measure of perspectives on time. Study 4 further validated the mediating role of emotion in the temperature–time relationship. Taken together, the current findings evince a unidirectional relationship between the incidental environmental factor of temperature and the metaphorical representation of time and accentuate the roles of sensory perception and emotional experience in temporal cognition.

English learners’ beliefs about L2 speaking fluency: Insights from elicited metaphor analysis

AbstractSecond language (L2) learners hold different learning beliefs that influence their interpretation of classroom experiences and their L2 learning process. Developing a thorough understanding of such beliefs is therefore imperative. This article reports the representations of Iranian English‐as‐a‐foreign‐language (EFL) learners’ beliefs about L2 speaking fluency as revealed by elicited metaphors and follow‐up interviews. A group of 24 Iranian EFL learners majoring in teaching English as a foreign language were asked to conceptualize L2 speaking fluency through metaphor. Learners’ metaphorical representations were examined using metaphor analysis and organized into eight metaphor themes through thematic analysis. The findings suggest that metaphor is a suitable tool for gaining insight into learners’ beliefs about L2 speaking fluency and capturing its complex, multifaceted nature. Various aspects were conceptualized, which revealed that learners had a deep understanding of L2 speaking fluency and could represent its multifaceted nature in the learning process. Additionally, this research sheds light on contextual factors that might contribute to learners’ beliefs. The findings fill a gap in research concerning EFL learners’ beliefs about L2 speaking fluency and have useful implications for L2 teachers, learners, and researchers.

REPRESENTATION OF THE GOSPEL CODE IN THE NOVEL “GETTING INTO CHARACTERˮ BY H.L. OLDIE THROUGH THE PRISM OF SHAKESPEARE’S THEATRICAL METAPHOR

In the presented study the novel “Getting into Characterˮ (1991) by Henry Lyon Oldie (the pen name of Dmytro Hromov and Oleh Ladyzhens’ky) is considered as a part of Hamlet`s text of modern Russian-language literature. The peculiarities of the representation of the Gospel code of the novel are analysed. They are conditioned by the author’s concept of the artistic world, which assumes the recreation of reality according to the stage laws. It is established that the transformation of the Gospel code in the novel occurs at the level of the image system (Actor-Hamlet-Christ, mentor/Master-Messiah, pupil/apprentice-follower, stage word as Logos, theatre as religion, abyss as unrealised creative work), motif structure (motifs of mentoring, faith, salvation and resurrection of the soul). The ideological and thematic content of the artistic work is changed (the theme of art and its Creator, the problem of faith and faithlessness, the idea of redemption of human sins – the humanistic mission of the protagonist). It is determined by the theatricality as the most important category of the novel`s poetics, underlying the construction of the artistic reality of “Getting into Characterˮ. Special attention is paid to the representation of Shakespearean theatrical metaphor, as well as to the intertextual connection of H.L. Oldie’s novel with Shakespeare’s “Hamletˮ tragedy.

Experiences of racism of Black medical students and residents in Montréal: "I wear my stethoscope around my neck at all times".

Black students and residents experience racism in medical school. This qualitative study documents Black students' and residents' experiences of racism using Critical Race Theory (CRT) and explores their coping mechanisms using the theatrical metaphor. We conducted semi-structured interviews with four Black medical students and residents (two medical students and two residents) studying in Montréal and analyzed their experiences through counter-stories. We identified themes related to their experiences of racism during medical training and their coping mechanisms. Our analysis reveals these experiences of racism occur in academic and clinical settings (classes, internships, social interactions with peers, faculty, and patients, and through the curriculum), in the form of microaggressions. The analysis also indicates that Black students and residents try to cope with racism using a hyper-ritualization strategy to better fit in (e.g., clothing, behaviours). Considering that Black students and residents experience various forms of racism (subtle or explicit) during their medical training, these findings urge us to increase awareness about racism of students, residents, teachers and health care workers in universities and teaching hospitals. Pathways to increase the representation of Black students and residents seem to be part of the solution, but improving the learning environment must be a priority to achieve racial justice in medical training in Québec.

Representation of Sources of the Conceptual Metaphor of 'Love' in Chinese and Russian Fiction Texts of the Postmodern Era (a comparative aspect)

The proposed article examines in a comparative aspect on the material of postmodern Chinese and Russian literary texts the representation of the conceptual metaphor of feelings, namely love. The subject of the study is the sources of the conceptual metaphor of love, representing the scope of the goal of the metaphor in the analyzed texts. The aim of the work is to clarify the similarities and differences in the representation of the sources of the studied conceptual metaphor in Chinese and Russian texts. During the study, the following methods were used: the method of semantic analysis, the comparative method, the method of conceptual analysis. Comparative analysis showed the presence of similarities in the representation of the studied metaphor in the areas of the source "Fire", "Disease", "Light", "Reservoir", "Material value". A distinctive feature of the Chinese texts is the representation of the metaphor in the "Plant" area, and the Russian texts – in the "Living Being" area. The practical value of this work is seen in the fact that these materials can be used in classes on the interpretation of artistic texts of the Chinese language in universities. The works of such a plan create a good prospect for the further development of one of the new areas of linguoculturology, namely comparative linguoculturology, within which there is a comparison of heterogeneous unrelated languages. The scientific novelty of this work lies in the fact that for the first time it reveals similarities and differences in the representation of the conceptual metaphor of love using the material of postmodernist fiction in Chinese and Russian. In the course of the work, it was found that in languages of different structures, Chinese and Russian, the presence of more similarities in the representation of the sources of the conceptual metaphor "love" indicates the universality of the formation of this metaphor in the minds of native speakers, which indicates the prospect of developing universalogy in the context of comparative studies of unrelated languages.

Environmental Horror and White Extinction

A literalist ecological approach to performance studies rematerializes theatre beyond a racist anthropocentricity of metaphorical representation and proposes a path to intersectional environmental justice. Escaped Alone (2016) by Caryl Churchill presents a horrifically accurate report of ecological harm. The Evening (2016) by Richard Maxwell and the New York City Players imagines an extinction of whiteness. Both productions propose new understandings of ecology through reconfiguring the theatrical conditions of representation.

Instrumental support for increasing personal resilience against destructive manipulations

The article confirms the possibility of metaphorical description by clients of options for manipulating their behavior that are significant to them. It has been shown that Sandplay Therapy can be used to successfully design and rehearse the desired forms of behavior and form associated sensory standards for subsequent ideomotor training. Evidence is presented of the validity of an assumption that the very elements of such materialized displays of the existing orientation schemes and their photographs support to quickly assess the intensity of the emotional experiences accompanying such modeling and the physiological processes associated with them. It has been established that cardiac measurements followed by calculation of the stress index of the various components of the autonomic nervous system make it possible to assess the level of stress caused by the client’s imagination of a problematic situation for him/her, where he/ she is facing a traumatic manipulation. It is noted that measurements of changes in galvanic skin reactions also allows judging the intensity of experiences that accompany the rebuilding of the associative connection of the depicted items with those manifestations of manipulation of which it is a metaphorical representation. Another assumption has also been confirmed that Sandplay Therapy can be used to effectively prevent some undesired manipulative influences on the client’s personality. At the same time, in addition to establishing the effectiveness of therapeutic procedures, cardiometric measurements and recording of electrodermal activity for the client himself/herself serve as a kind of bio-feedback. Using the latter, the client gets an opportunity to assess how much the response to metaphorical representations of manipulative influences corresponds to how exactly he/she would like to act if they are detected.

Meat Consumption as a Metaphor: Gender Differences in Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman

This paper studies the metaphorical representation of gender differences in meat consumption, a vital issue in vegetarian ecofeminism, masculine food studies, and feminist animal studies. In the context of Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman, the metaphor of meat eating resonates with Carol J. Adams’ concepts of the linked relation between women and edible animals and J Wyckoff’s linked oppression of sexism and speciesism. Using these concepts as a critical intersectional lens, the paper explores the various forms of gender oppression Marian is subject to, the power dynamics in Marian-Peter’s relationships, and the potential solutions presented by Atwood’s novel to resist such gender oppression that threatens Marian’s survival. The central question of this paper is how Marian’s identification with edible animals through Atwood’s use of meat consumption as a metaphor portrays the gender dynamics of oppression that threaten her relationship with Peter, thus leading to further gender imbalances in her society. The paper concludes that ensuring women are free to choose and speak up, regardless of societal expectations or gender, is crucial to eliminating some oppressive forms. However, it also argues that adopting a vegetarian lifestyle is not a practical solution to dismantling sexism or resisting other gender oppressions. It may perpetuate new forms of gender inequality and oppression

In help-seekers' shoes: First-person pronouns entitled charitable fundraising campaigns and individual donating behavior in China

Both first-person and third-person pronouns are widely used in charitable fundraising campaigns, but which type of pronouns is more effective in soliciting donations is still to be explored. In this study, we conduct a field study and five experiment studies to examine the effect of personal pronouns (first-person vs. third-person) entitled charitable fundraising campaigns on viewers' donations and its underlying mechanisms. We find robust results to show that, compared to third-person pronouns, adopting first-person pronouns (both singular and plural) in the title of charitable fundraising campaigns significantly increases viewers' donating willingness and behavior. Viewers' perceived self-other overlap acts as an important mediating mechanism: using first-person pronouns in the title of charitable fundraising campaigns first increases viewers' sense of self-other overlap, which in turn promotes their donating behavior. In addition, viewers' thinking style seems to bend the relationships between the use of first-person pronouns and both perceived self-other overlap and donating behavior in such way that individuals with emotional-thinking style (vs. rational-thinking style) experience stronger self-other overlap and demonstrate higher level of donating willingness when a charitable campaign is named in first-person pronouns other than in third-person pronouns. These findings contribute to the literature on charity marketing, personal pronouns and metaphor representation, and have substantial practical implications.

A Study on Chinese Culture in High School English Textbooks of BNUP from the Perspective of Conceptual Blending Theory for Multimodal Metaphors

At the end of the 20th century, scholars represented by Forceville dived into the construction and representation of metaphors using various modalities, leading the shift of metaphor studies towards multimodality, which consequently put the study of multimodal metaphors in the spotlight. English textbooks, as a combination of visual and linguistic modes of expression, contain a large number of metaphors. From the perspective of conceptual blending theory, the paper explores the construction and meaning of multimodal metaphors of Chinese culture in three compulsory high school English textbooks of Beijing Normal University Press. It is found that these three compulsory high school English textbooks of Beijing Normal University Press (BNUP) contain many multimodal metaphors of Chinese culture, and these multimodal metaphors can activate student’s cultural background knowledge and convey the communicative intention of the pictures, thus arousing students’ interest in Chinese culture and fostering cultural confidence.

The Paperboy: The Dramaturgy of Development in Loewaldian-Relational Discourse

In this paper, the authors present a reading of Loewald’s developmental and clinical thinking from a relational-developmental perspective, illustrating their ideas through the case of an 11-year-old boy presenting with quasi-psychotic symptoms. The paper explores Loewald’s developmental narrative as entailing an implicit view of the self as a relational matrix comprised of both time and space; an open, ever-expanding relational system within a shared psychic field, wherein time is a central psychic activity. The authors trace Loewaldian development as a movement toward greater organization of two inherently interlinked layers of experience, the primordial oceanic oneness (merger) and differentiated reality (separateness), each related to its own form of fundamental anxiety: engulfment and castration, respectively. Through the clinical material, these layers of experience are also discussed in relation to Loewald’s notion of language. The elements of Loewald’s developmental theory are discussed as preceding and inspiring subsequent relational thinking. Loewald, they contend, situates therapeutic action within the metaphor of theater. Drawing on his emphasis on the analyst’s role as a “director,” and his key concept of linking as well as his formulation of the functions of “transference” (being-with) and “differential” (being-ahead-of), the authors also reconceptualize two crucial theatrical roles performed in the analytic field: “merging actor” and “dramaturg.” These two critical, mutually-informing roles are demonstrated through the clinical material.

Metaphor and Theatre

This paper aims to analyze how metaphor operates in the theatrical realm. Metaphor viewed from a linguistic point of view has a certain impact on theatre and is a consequence of looking at theatre as language. But viewed from a pragmatic point of view, beyond the linguistic aspect, as a model of thinking, metaphor becomes a cognitive tool. Between these two perspectives lies a wide range of ways in which theatrical metaphor intervenes in the scenic creation. At the same time, seen as a metaphor of life, theatre assumes, through a series of successive metaphors, a creative freedom which, however, can become anarchic and end up in what is called dead metaphor. For this reason, metaphor, from the point of view of theatre creators, must be assumed insofar as it is a conceptual tool, which has the ability to penetrate the various levels of reality in order to achieve a meaning concomitant with a sense of the scenic action. This may be the real freedom that the use of metaphor offers in theatre: the ability to achieve a meaning concomitant with a sense of the scenic action in the absence of the chain of cause and effect. Only in this way can metaphor remain an element of vitality in a living theatre.

Un courant d’Est venu à l’Ouest via l’adaptateur scénique Virgil Tănase

The article An Eastern current coming to the West, through Virgil Tănase’s stage adaptations addresses the influences of two literary and theatrical cultures from the East (Romania and Russia) on the work of Virgil Tănase as a stage adapter in France. By scrutinizing the way in which the great Russian authors from the 19th century to the present day through the Soviet era establish themselves as a frame of reference for Tănase’s work as a stage adapter and by addressing the way in which this comes to fruition, within the stage adaptations created in France by the Franco-Romanian writer (often performed abroad too), a dreamlike aesthetic born in Romania in the 1960s, the study will show that Virgil Tănase, also known as a translator, managed to create a scenic poetics in which the words are at the service of the melody just as the scenography is at the service of the theatrical metaphor. By highlighting the ontological scope of the character and especially the actor, the stage adaptations developed by Tănase from canonical works of Eastern and Western literature finally converge towards a common goal, representative of his writer’s gesture: all aim to awaken in spectators their freedom to think and create, to revive each person’s faith in the fulfilment of their vocation, like the Proustian narrator of the novel In Search of Lost Time. Keywords: adaptation for stage, theatrical metaphor, aesthetic onirism, Eastern Block, translation, Virgil Tănase, Dostoïevski, Proust.

Conceptualizing parenthood: American newspaper discourse analysis

This study aims to elucidate the metaphorical representations of the concept PARENT within American media discourse. By analyzing the conceptual metaphors employed in newspaper discourse, we seek to reconstruct the metaphorically derived understanding of parenthood within English-speaking community. These conceptual metaphors, crafted by media presenters, exert a profound influence on the societal comprehension of this concept, both directly and indirectly. The study draws upon the Conceptual Metaphor theory, Conceptual Integration theory, and Discourse analysis. Within the scope of our investigation, the target domain PARENT encompasses four primary source domains: DUTIES, DIFFICULTIES, OWNER, and BURDEN. Our emphasis lies in scrutinizing the cross-domain mappings, which delineate systematic correspondences between the target and source domains. We investigate novel conceptualizations that emerge from conventional metaphoric patterns, employing cognitive mechanisms such as extension, elaboration, questioning, and combination. We also explore the conceptual blends and emergent structures that introduce additional layers of interpretation of being a parent. They are elucidated using Conceptual Integration Networks, specifically double- and multiple-scope models. Our analysis has unveiled the existence of four metaphorical clusters, each providing unique perspectives on how parenthood is conceptualized within the newspaper discourse.