Dorothea Horst - Böcker

Although recent linguistic and media-studies' research has increasingly dealt with forms of imagery beyond language, such as in audiovisual formats, only little attention has been paid to the specific media character of audiovisual images. This raises a theoretical as well as methodological problem: How can processes of figurative meaning making in audiovisual media be adequately conceptualized and described? The book intends to bridge this research gap with an analysis of campaign commercials, a hitherto largely underexplored object of study in metaphor and metonymy research. To achieve this goal, a transdisciplinary film-analytical and cognitive-linguistic account of audiovisual figurativity is developed and examined through a comparative analysis of figurative meaning-making processes in German and Polish campaign commercials from 2009 and 2011. By setting the inseparable intertwining of language and cinematic staging, sensing and understanding center stage, the book provides insight into the dynamic nature and embodied affective grounds of audiovisual figurativity, and challenges the long-known dichotomies of rational discourse and affective manipulation, political message and media effect.

Over centuries, scholars have explored how metaphor contributes to thought, language, culture. This collection of essays reflects on Müller, Kappelhoff, and colleagues’ transdisciplinary (film studies and linguistics) approach formulated in "Cinematic Metaphor: Experience – Affectivity – Temporality". The key concept of cinematic metaphor opens up reflections on metaphor as a form of embodied meaning-making in human life across disciplines. The book documents collaborative work, reflecting intense, sometimes controversial, discussions across disciplinary boundaries. In this edited volume, renowned authors explore how exposure to the framework of Cinematic Metaphor inspires their views of metaphor in film and of metaphor theory and analysis more generally. Contributions include explorations from the point of view of applied linguistics (Lynne Cameron), cognitive linguistics (Alan Cienki), media studies (Kathrin Fahlenbrach), media history (Michael Wedel), philosophy (Anne Eusterschulte), and psychology (Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr.).

Although recent linguistic and media-studies' research has increasingly dealt with forms of imagery beyond language, such as in audiovisual formats, only little attention has been paid to the specific media character of audiovisual images. This raises a theoretical as well as methodological problem: How can processes of figurative meaning making in audiovisual media be adequately conceptualized and described? The book intends to bridge this research gap with an analysis of campaign commercials, a hitherto largely underexplored object of study in metaphor and metonymy research. To achieve this goal, a transdisciplinary film-analytical and cognitive-linguistic account of audiovisual figurativity is developed and examined through a comparative analysis of figurative meaning-making processes in German and Polish campaign commercials from 2009 and 2011. By setting the inseparable intertwining of language and cinematic staging, sensing and understanding center stage, the book provides insight into the dynamic nature and embodied affective grounds of audiovisual figurativity, and challenges the long-known dichotomies of rational discourse and affective manipulation, political message and media effect.