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Musolff (2008) What can Critical Metaphor Analysis Add to the Understanding of Racist Ideology? Recent Studies of Hitler’s Anti-Semitic Metaphors

What can Critical Metaphor Analysis Add to the Understanding of Racist Ideology? Recent Studies of Hitler’s Anti-Semitic Metaphors

Andreas Musolff, Durham University

Abstract

Over the past decade several studies have been published that investigate the metaphors employed in Nazi racist ideology from the combined perspectives of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Cognitive Semantics.  The paper reviews these studies, and discusses their differences to earlier studies that were based on traditional rhetorical definitions of metaphor.  Particular attention is paid to comparisons between Hitler's metaphors and recent discriminatory propaganda, as well as to the interpretation of such ideological metaphors as ‘viruses of the mind', and to the relationship between Hitler's use of the Great Chain of Being and classical versions of this concept.  In conclusion, it is argued that cognitively oriented CDA studies of metaphor use can contribute significantly not only to the conceptual reconstruction of metaphoric mappings but also to understanding their discursive history.

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