Contemporary Russian Political Metaphorology (2011-2020)

Abstract

The article deals with the major trends of modern Russian political metaphorology (2011-2020): cognitive, rhetorical, discursive, and semiotic. The cognitive trend considers political metaphor as a mental phenomenon that can be verbally represented in political texts. The cognitive direction includes four methods of political metaphor analysis: 1) analysis of solitary conceptual metaphors; 2) analysis of metaphors united by the source domain of metaphorical expansion; 3) analysis of metaphors united by the target domain of metaphorical expansion; 4) analysis of metaphorical projections in conceptual integrated spaces. The rhetorical trend focuses on the analysis of political metaphor as a pragmatic tool of influence on the addressee. The rhetorical approach to political metaphors involves research of the system of political arguments, strategies and tactics of rhetorical persuasion, the development of the methodology of rhetorical analysis and the construction of theoretical models of argumentation. This approach traditionally considers the metaphor as one of the stylistic means that politicians use in the struggle for power in various genres of political communication. The discursive trend involves the study of metaphor in a wide extra-linguistic context in different types of political discourse. There is a tendency to reduce the role of critical discourse analysis, which was so popular in political metaphorology at the beginning of the 21st century. The semiotic trend studies metaphor as an attribute of the sign system in the political life of society. There is a growing interest of linguists in multimodal imagery, which is associated with the understanding that non-verbal means are not inferior in pragmatic potential to the verbal tools. The peculiarity of the study of non-verbal metaphors is that researchers more often choose a method for studying the target domain of metaphorical expansion. The most general tendencies of modern Russian political metaphorology are highlighted, which include interdisciplinarity, methodological pluralism, criticism of universalism, emphasis on the cultural specifics of communication and its discursive characteristics, as well as the convergence of rhetorical and cognitive methodology. On the one hand, the paper emphasizes trends common to Russian and foreign metaphorology, and on the other, it reveals the characteristics reflecting the continuation of the traditions of Russian science.