Seasonal metaphors in Arab journalistic discourse

Abstract

Abstract The rhetorical fabric of the recent Arab uprisings resorts to mythology and metaphoricity to elicit an ideologically-biased polarization of the popular revolts. Building on some striking resemblances the Greek myth of Persephone and the journalistic construction of the Arab revolts hold in common, this paper delves into the oblique parallelism that informs the use of seasonal metaphors to serve ideological functions. The analysis of this pragmatic aspect of metaphorical structuring elaborates on findings of a corpus study, focusing on the collocational tendencies of the Arab Spring and Arab Autumn metaphors in Tunisian and Saudi press outlets. Empirical results show that the anti-revolts agenda selects negatively valued collocates to occur with the Arab Autumn metaphor, whereas the pro-revolts ideology recruits positively-valued lexis to mirror the emancipatory journey voiced by the Arab Spring trope. The paper uses a blend of cognitive theories of metaphor with research from a critical metaphor perspective to elucidate the ideologies which motivate and guide the figurative construal of the popular uprisings in Arab journalistic discourse.