By J. Charteris-Black
This booklet analyzes the rhetoric of speeches by way of significant British or American politicians and exhibits how metaphor is used systematically to create political myths of monsters, villains and heroes. Metaphors are proven to have interaction with different figures of speech to speak subliminal meanings by way of drawing at the subconscious emotional organization of words.
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Additional resources for Politicians and Rhetoric: The Persuasive Power of Metaphor
Sample text
This use of the media was a completely novel, and effective, leadership strategy. : 108). He goes on to claim: Here was the authentic voice of leadership and defiance. It was Churchill’s outstanding quality as a war leader that he made the 34 Politicians and Rhetoric struggle seem not merely essential for national survival, but worthwhile and noble. 2 The rhetoric of Winston Churchill In the following analysis I will argue that Churchill’s primary rhetorical objective was the creation of a heroic myth in which the actions of Hitler and Germany are represented as forces of evil in contrast to those of Britain and its Allies that are represented as forces of good.
A hallmark of Churchill’s use of metaphor is that nation-states are conceptualised as human participants in terms of their status as heroes, villains or victims. They are attributed with mental and affective states that lead them to have thoughts, beliefs and feelings. It was, of course, the people who inhabited these nations who may have undergone such experiences, but Churchill’s heroic myth described international political and military affairs as if they were personal hopes and anxieties. Metaphor created the possibility for representation of Britain and its allies as motivated by altruism and for Germany and its allies as motivated by self-interest.
This is done by associating social groups, ideologies and beliefs that are positively evaluated with heroic human attributes – such as courage and determination – and by associating negatively evaluated social groups, ideas etc. with villainous attributes – such as cowardice and treachery. A typical example of positive evaluation is when ‘Britain’ or ‘us’ is described as if it were a plucky hero who is prepared to fight to the death: And now it has come to us to stand alone in the breach, and face the worst that the tyrant’s might and enmity can do .