Tesis doctoral: APONTE, M. A. M etaphors in Hugo Ch ávez's Politi cal Discourse: Conceptualizing N ation, Revolution and Opposition

Wed Jul 9 11:16:37 UTC 2008

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Información sobre tesis doctoral:
APONTE, Marco A. 2008. Metaphors in Hugo Chávez's Political Discourse:
Conceptualizing Nation, Revolution and Opposition. Ph. D. Diss, The
City University of New York: http://elies.rediris.es/elies27/
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1. Autor:  APONTE, Marco A.

2. Título de la tesis:
Metaphors in Hugo Chávez's Political Discourse: Conceptualizing
Nation, Revolution and Opposition
2.1 Número de páginas: 232
2.2 Palabras clave: Lingüística cognitiva, metáfora, análisis del
discurso, análisis del discurso político

3. Fecha de lectura o defensa: junio 2008

4. Departamento, centro o laboratorio en el que se ha desarrollado:
The City University of New York
EE.UU

5. Director:
Prof. José del Valle

6. Proyecto o línea de investigación en el que se incluye:

7. Resumen e índice

This dissertation examines Hugo Chávez's choice of metaphors in his
efforts to construct and legitimize his Bolivarian Revolution. It
focuses on metaphors drawn from three of the most frequent target
domains present in his discourse: the nation, his revolution, and the
opposition. The study argues that behind an official discourse of
inclusion, Chávez's choice of metaphors contributes to the
construction of a polarizing discourse of exclusion in which his
political opponents are represented as enemies of the nation.

The study shows that Chávez constructs this polarizing discourse of
exclusion by combining metaphors that conceptualize:
(a) the nation as a person who has been resurrected by his government,
as a person ready to fight for his revolution, or as Chávez's himself;
(b) the revolution as war; and (c) members of the opposition as war
combatants or criminals.

At the same time, the study shows that by making explicit references
in his discourse about the revolution as the continuation of Bolívar's
wars of independence, Chávez contributes to represent opponents as
enemies of the nation, given that in the Venezuelan collective
imaginary Simón Bolívar is the symbol of the nation's emancipation.

This research, which covers a period of nine years (from Chávez's
first year in office in 1999 through 2007), is part of the discipline
of Political Discourse Analysis (PDA). It is anchored both in the
theoretical framework provided by the cognitive linguistic metaphor
theory developed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson described in their
book Metaphors We Live By, and in Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA) as
defined by Jonathan Charteris-Black in his book Corpus Approaches to
Critical Metaphor Analysis.

The study provides the first comprehensive analysis of metaphors used
by Chávez in his political discourse. It builds upon the findings of
previous studies on political discourse analysis in Venezuela by
showing that Chávez's discourse not only polarizes the country and
represents opponents as detractors of national symbols such as Bolívar
or his wars of independence (which have been clearly established in
previous studies), but also represents political opponents as enemies
of the nation.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1. Overview
1.2. Relevance of the Study
1.3. Main Argument and Research Questions
1.3.1. Main Argument
1.3.2. Research Questions
1.3.3. Official Discourse of Inclusion
1.4. Literature Review
1.4.1. Argentina
1.4.2. Chile
1.4.3. Mexico
1.4.4. Venezuela
1.4.5. Earlier Dissertations on Chávez's Discourse
1.5. Structure of the Remainder of Dissertation
1.6. Conclusion

Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework and Methodology
2.1. Background
2.1.1. The History of the Study of Political Discourse
2.1.2. The Emergence of Political Discourse Analysis (PDA)
2.1.3. Approaches for Analyzing Political Discourse
2.1.4. Analysis of Metaphors in PDA
2.2. Theoretical Framework
2.2.1. Metaphor Theory
2.2.1. Critical Metaphor Analysis
2.2.1. Methodology
2.3. Summary

Chapter 3: The Cult of Bolívar and Chávezs Bolivarian Revolution
3.1. Simón Bolívar's Life and Legacy
3.1.1. Bolívar the Revolutionary: 1810-1818
3.1.2. Bolívar the Great Liberator: 1819-1826
3.1.3. Bolívar the Statesman: 1827-1830
3.2. The Bolivarian Ideology in Venezuela Society: History and Imaginaries
3.2.1. Bolívar the Demigod
3.2.2. Bolívar the Revolutionary
3.2.3. Bolívar the Democratic Leader
3.2.4. Bolívar the Catholic
3.3. Hugo Chávez's Bolivarian Revolution: History and Ideologies
3.3.1. History of the Bolivarian Revolution
3.3.2. Ideologies of the Bolivarian Revolution
3.4. Summary

Chapter 4: Refounding the Nation - Analysis of Data (1999-2001)
4.1. Speeches and Their Contexts (1999-2001)
4.2. Overview of Chávez's Metaphors by Target Domain (1999-2001)
4.3. Source Domains in Chávez's Metaphors (1999-2001)
4.4. Conceptualizing the Nation
4.4.1. Conceptualizing the Nation as a "Resurrecting Person"
4.4.2. Conceptualizing the Nation as Chávez
4.4.3. Other Conceptualizations of the Nation: Nautical and Construction
Metaphors
4.5. Conceptualizing the Bolivarian Revolution as War
4.5.1. The Bolivarian Revolution as the Continuation of Bolívar's
Independence Wars
4.5.2. Other Conceptualizations of Chávez's Bolivarian Revolution:
Journey and Construction Metaphors
4.6. Conceptualizing the Opposition with Conflict and Destruction Metaphors
4.6.1. Conceptualizations of Former Governments
4.6.2. Conceptualizations of Current Opponents
4.7. Summary of Findings for the Period 1999-2001

Chapter 5: Polarizing a Divided Nation - Analysis of Data (2002-2004)
5.1. Speeches and Their Contexts (2002-2004)
5.2. Overview of Chávez's Metaphors by Target Domain (2002-2004)
5.3. Source Domains in Chávez's Metaphors (2002-2004)
5.4. Conceptualizing the Nation
5.4.1. Reconceptualizing the Nation: From "Resurrecting Person" to
"Active Agent"
5.4.2. Other Conceptualizations of the Nation and "The Nation Is Chávez"
5.5. Intensifying the Concept of the Bolivarian Revolution as War
5.5.1. The Bolivarian Revolution as the Continuation of Bolívar's
Independence Wars
5.5.2. Other Conceptualizations of Chávez's Bolivarian Revolution:
Personifications and Journey Metaphors
5.6. Conceptualizing Opponents as Combatants and Criminals
5.6.1. Conflict and Crime Metaphors
5.6.2. Conceptualizing Opponents as Unpatriotic Citizens Allied with
US Imperialism
5.7. Summary of Results for the Period 2002-2004

Chapter 6: Consolidating the Bolivarian Revolution - Analysis of Data
(2005-2007)
6.1. Speeches and Their Contexts (2005-2007)
6.2. Overview of Chávez's Metaphors by Target Domain (2005-2007)
6.3. Source Domains in Chávez's Metaphors (2005-2007)
6.4. Conceptualizing the Nation
6.4.1. Reconceptualizing the Nation: From "Active Agent" to "Mature Person"
6.4.2. Other Conceptualizations of the Nation and "The Nation is Chávez"
6.5. Maintaining the Conceptualization of the Bolivarian Revolution as War
6.5.1. The Bolivarian Revolution as the Continuation of Bolívar's
Independence Wars
6.5.2. Other Conceptualizations of Chávez's Bolivarian Revolution:
Construction and Journey Metaphors
6.6. Maintaining the Trend to Conceptualize Opponents as Combatants and
Criminals
6.6.1. Other Conceptualizations of Opponents as Criminals
6.6.2. Continuing to Conceptualize Opponents as Unpatriotic Citizens
Allied with US Imperialism
6.7. Summary of Results for the Period 2005-2007

Chapter 7: Conclusions
7.1. Bolívar as the Symbol of the Country's Emancipation in the Collective
Imaginary of Venezuelans
7.2. Metaphors Used by Chávez When Referring to the Nation, His Revolution,
and the Opposition
7.3. Chávez's Conceptualizations of the Nation, His Revolution and the
Opposition
7.4. Evolution of Chávez's Conceptualizations from 1999 through 2007
7.5. Combination of Chávez's Conceptualizations and its Contributions to
Representing Opponents as Enemies of the Nation
7.6. Explicit References That Represent Chávez's Opponents as Enemies of the
Nation
7.7. Explicit References That Represent Chávez's Bolivarian Revolution as the
Continuation of Bolívar's Independence Wars
7.8. Limitations of the Study and Fut

8. Correo-e del autor:
<maponte at princeton.edu>
Más información sobre el autor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Aponte

9. Cómo obtener la tesis:
APONTE, Marco. 2008. Metaphors in Hugo Chávez's Political Discourse:
Conceptualizing Nation, Revolution and Opposition. Estudios de
Lingüística del Español 27: http://elies.rediris.es/elies27/

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