The Effect of Metaphors on portraying Immigration in Political speeches. A Biopolitical View on Rhetorics

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,3, RWTH Aachen University, language: English, abstract: Metaphors are, next to parallels and comparisons, one of the most important rhetorical devices in political speeches. They were defined by Aristotle as 'giving the thing a name that belongs to something else's. Metaphors establish a connection between a subject that may be new or uncommon in our lives and something that feels familiar and near to the heart. This makes them successful and turns them into a useful tool in politics. The ways to analyse metaphors are manifold, but the preferred way for political speeches is the Critical Metaphor Analysis. It enables the researcher to not only identify and classify a metaphor, but also to determine which use a metaphor has and which tone it carries. This paper will compare a total of four speeches from two different politicians with each other with regard to the usage of metaphors and the effect those metaphors have on a biopolitical base.