Warring With Words ― Narrative and Metaphor in Politics

Scholars in many of the disciplines surrounding politics explicitly utilize either a narrative perspective or a metaphor perspective (though rarely the two in combination) to analyze issues -- theoretical and practical, domestic and international -- in the broad field of politics. Among the topics they have studied are:

• competing metaphors for the state or nation which have been coined over the centuries in diverse cultures;
• the frequency with which communal and international conflicts are generated, at least in part, by the clashing religious and historical narratives held by opposing groups;
• the cognitive short-cuts employing metaphor by which citizens make sense of politics;
• the need for political candidates to project a convincing self-narrative;
• the extent to which the metaphors used to formulate social issues determine the policies which will be developed to resolve them;
• the failure of narratives around the security of the nation to take account of the individual experiences of women and children.

This volume is the first in which eminent scholars from disciplines as diverse as social psychology, anthropology, political theory, international relations, feminist political science, and media studies, have sought to integrate the narrative and the metaphor perspectives on politics.

It will appeal to any scholar interested in the many ways in which narrative and metaphor function in combination as cognitive and rhetorical instruments in discourse around politics.

Michael Hanne founded the Comparative Literature Program at the University of Auckland in 1995 and directed it until 2010. His recent research has focused on the role of narrative and metaphor in the construction of a wide range of disciplines from medicine to politics, to education and the law. He has written articles advocating closer cooperation between narrative scholars and metaphor scholars in the various disciplines.

William D. Crano is Oskamp Professor and Chair of the Psychology Department at Claremont Graduate University. He has published widely on research on communication and persuasion, especially the influence of minorities on the majority. His field research is directed toward applications of persuasive principles in the prevention of adolescent drug misuse.

Jeffery Scott Mio is the director of the M.S. in Psychology Program at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Illinois, Chicago, in 1984. His main lines of research are in how metaphors are used in political persuasion and in the teaching of multicultural psychology, having authored or edited numerous articles and books in both areas.