Arming and disarming. Metaphorical expressions in political discourseAccording to Cognitive Metaphor Theory, metaphorical expressions are considered to be a projection of a clearer and more easily comprehensible cognitive structure on a more abstract or complicated target domain. In other words, metaphorical expressions explain complicated and more abstract notions in terms of easier and less abstract phenomena. However, the choice of a source and a target domain often imposes a certain point of view and sanctions specific interpretations. This characteristic of metaphorical expressions makes them an extremely useful device for political persuasion. Since the emergence of Cognitive Metaphor Theory there has been a growing number of research focused on the relations between figurative language, power and ideology. This paper focuses on processes of arming and disarming metaphorical expressions in political discourse. The author outlines basic tenets of Cognitive Metaphor Theory, as well as some of its implications on the relations between figurative language, persuasion and ideology. This paper gives also a very concise overview of previous research on arming and disarming metaphorical expressions by Teresa Dobrzyńska [1994] and a study on metaphorical expressions and ideology by Michael Billig and Katie Macmillan [2005].
The article describes the Festa dei gigli – an event that belongs to an extremely wide and diverse set of folk festivals of the Italian South. Gigli di Nola is dedicated to Saint Paolino, patron of Nola; a small town near Naples. In this text, I argue that the Italian festas are the key to understanding of the respective local community. A moment of opening, a manifestation of identity, often based on oppositions: the sacred – the profane, the ordinary – the extraordinary, ours – foreign. An attempt to delineate the boundaries of these categories and their significance for a given community may lead to a more profound experience of its otherness. This text, part of the author's master's thesis, presents the founding myth, history, and course of the Gigli festival.
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Tekst opisuje festę dei gigli – wydarzenie, które należy do niezwykle szerokiego i bardzo zróżnicowanego zbioru świąt ludowych włoskiego południa. Gigli di Nola, to wydarzenie poświęcone świętemu Paolino, patronowi niewielkiego miasta w okolicach Neapolu. Włoskie festy to klucz do zrozumienia kultury. Moment otwarcia, manifestacja tożsamości, oparta często na opozycjach; sacrum – profanum, zwyczajne – niezwykłe, nasze – obce. Próba wyznaczenia granic tych kategorii i ich znaczenia dla danej społeczności, może prowadzić do głębszego doświadczenia jej inności. Tekst ten, będący częścią pracy magisterskiej autorki, przybliża mit założycielski, historię oraz przebieg święta Gigli. Nie jest to jednak wyłącznie opis niezwykłego zjawiska, ale i przykład analizy świata festy, jako klucza do kultury i historii danej społeczności.
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