Metaphor and Persuasion in Strategic Communication Sustainable Perspectives Routledge Studies in Rhetoric and Stylistics Series

This groundbreaking work adopts an alternative metaphor-based approach to challenge, unpack, and redefine our understanding of persuasion and strategic communication and the extents to which they shape political discourse. The book?s theoretical and methodological grounding in metaphor allows for an alternative perspective on strategic communication but also a robust discussion of both persuasion and other kinds of related discursive processes at work in political communication, including narrative, identification, and ideology. The volume integrates case studies from prominent political discourses, including those of George W. Bush, Jr., Tony Blair, and Barack Obama, to highlight the crucial role of persuasion management and sustainability in the public sphere and the ways in which it might inform political action and change in a positive way. Broadening our perception of the possibilities of persuasion and strategic communication, this dynamic volume is key reading for students and scholars in communication studies, political science, rhetoric, and cognitive linguistics.

Introduction: Persuasion and Sustainability: The Post-9/11 Arena

Chapter 1: ‘Words are Killers,’ alias Metaphor and Persuasion

Chapter 2: Persuasion Analysis: Introducing a Framework for Detecting Persuasion in Discourse

Chapter 3: The 4 Step Persuasion-oriented Procedure for the Identification of Strategic Metaphor in Text

Chapter 4: Quantitative and Preliminary Analysis I – II: Hypothesising Rhetorical Attitudes in Discourse

Chapter 5: Qualitative Textual Analysis II – Detecting Frames in Persuasion Building: the Contemporary Rhetoric of Conflict

Chapter 6: Qualitative Metaphor Analysis III – from Microtext to Macrotext: the Strategy of Fear

Chapter 7: Contrastive Analysis: Conflict vs. Inclusive Logic and Political Change

Chapter 8: Toward an Integrated Re-definition of Metaphor and Persuasion in Strategic Communication – ‘Transformational’ Power and Sustainable Perspectives

Federica Ferrari is Tenured Researcher in English Linguistics at the University of Bologna, School of Political Sciences and Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures. Her research predominantly focuses on persuasive phenomena within strategic communication and discourse analysis methodologies with a focus on conceptual metaphor as main tool of analysis and transformative device. Particular attention is given to cognitive, pragmatic and interactive features (relation between language and thought, discourse and action, and inter/intra disciplinary relations). She has developed a specific competence in conceptual metaphor as a text analysis method, a persuasive tool in political discourse and a transformative device in psycho-practice.