Chapter published in:
The Language of Crisis: Metaphors, frames and discourses
Edited by Mimi Huang and Lise-Lotte Holmgreen
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 87] 2020
► pp. 169–196

Metaphors for protest

The persuasive power of cross-domain mappings on demonstration posters against Stuttgart 21

Heated debates can inspire people to make use of creative linguistic means such as metaphor to express their point of view. In this chapter, I investigate the emotional appeal and persuasive power of metaphors on demonstration posters used by opponents of the railway modernization project Stuttgart 21 in Germany. In this context, metaphors are used both to construct and fuel the crisis. Protesters often draw on quite drastic conceptual mappings to aggravate existing tensions, demonize their ‘enemies,’ and express strong negative emotions like anger or fear. An examination of resistant discourses cannot only shed light on people’s attitudes towards elites, but also enhance our understanding of political protest in general.
Keywords: Stuttgart 21, protest discourse, conceptual metaphor, Critical Discourse Studies, Critical Metaphor Theory, emotion, persuasion
Published online: 16 July 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.87.06kot
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