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Part of
Performing Metaphoric Creativity across Modes and Contexts
Edited by Laura Hidalgo-Downing and Blanca Kraljevic Mujic
[Figurative Thought and Language 7] 2020
► pp. 71–96

Chapter 4
Singing for peace

Metaphor and creativity in the lyrics and performances of three songs by U2

| Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
| Universidad de Valladolid

This chapter explores how metaphoric creativity contributes to shaping and recontextualizing ideological and socio-political practices in three songs by U2, “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”, “Please” and “Peace on Earth”. The contextual motivations of metaphoric creativity are analyzed by exploring three main dimensions. Metaphoric creativity is analyzed, first, in the conceptualization of the topic of conflict in Northern Ireland in the lyrics of the three songs. Second, it is analyzed as hinging upon the multimodal interaction of verbal and visual modes in the performance of the song “Please” in a YouTube video. Third, we explore the potentiality for creative recontextualization of the songs, which have been performed to reinterpret other political conflicts and tragic events, starting from the 9/11 attacks.

Keywords: creativity, metaphor, performance, recontextualization, songs
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The Northern Irish conflict, U2, the three songs and their performance across contexts
  • 3.Metaphor and creativity as social practice in songs
    • 3.1Metaphor and creativity in pop-rock songs: From discursive to social practices
    • 3.2Metaphor and political action
    • 3.3Recontextualization of the songs and reinterpretation of the metaphors
  • 4.Metaphors and metonymies in the lyrics of the three songs
  • 5.Multimodal metaphor and metonymy in the video performance of “Please”
  • 6.Recontextualization of the three songs across performances
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 29 May 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ftl.7.04hid
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