Review Essay: About Metaphors and Monsters

Authors

  • Jo Reichertz Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut (KWI) Essen

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-25.1.4175

Keywords:

metaphor, power of metaphors, reconstitutive rhetoric, Metaphor analysis

Abstract

Metaphor analysis is an established part of qualitative social research. Therefore, the current book by Peter ADAMS, a psychologist from New Zealand who has been working for years on the renewal of rhetoric, is taken here as an opportunity to reflect on the power of metaphors. First, I will outline the author's theory that metaphors are actors of their own kind, that metaphors can combine with other metaphors and then grow into "monster metaphors" that shape not only people's thoughts but also their actions. In the second part of this article, ADAMS' position is then subjected to criticism from an action theory perspective.

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Author Biography

Jo Reichertz, Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut (KWI) Essen

Prof. em. Dr. Jo REICHERTZ; born in 1949, studied German language and literature, mathematics in Bonn, and sociology and communication science in Essen. He completed his doctorate on the development of objective hermeneutics and habilitated with a sociological field study on the work of the criminal investigation department. He was from 1993 to 2015 professor of communication science at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen campus, responsible for the areas of "Strategic Communication," "Qualitative Methods," "Communication in Institutions" and "New Media."

Since 2015, he has been a senior fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) Essen and a member of the Executive Board. He is also head of the project area "Cultures of Communication." Since 2022, he has held a visiting professorship at the University of Flensburg. There he is also a member of the board of the "Psychological Institute for Subjectivity and Practice Research."

His main areas of work are communication power, qualitative social research, text and image hermeneutics in the sociology of knowledge, sociology of culture, sociology of religion, media analysis, media use, communication with people with dementia.

References

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Keller, Reiner (2011). Diskursforschung. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

Keller, Reiner; Knoblauch, Hubert & Reichertz, Jo (Eds.) (2013). Kommunikativer Konstruktivismus. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

Lakoff, George & Johnson, Mark (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

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Pfaller, Larissa (2022). Pragmatische Kontexte, Multimodalität und kulturelle Archive: Grenzerkundungen metaphorischer Quellbereiche am Beispiel Organspende. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 23(3), Art. 7, https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-23.3.3906 [Accessed: December 3, 2023].

Reichertz, Jo (1999a). "Navigieren" oder "Surfen" oder: Das Ende der Bedrohung. In Manfred Fassler (Ed.), Alle möglichen Welten (pp.207-222). München: Fink.

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Schmitt, Rudolf (2003). Methode und Subjektivität in der Systematischen Metaphernanalyse. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 4(2), Art. 41, http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs-4.2.714 [Accessed: December 3, 2023].

Schmitt, Rudolf (2010). Metaphernanalyse. In Günter Mey & Katja Mruck (Eds.), Handbuch Qualitative Forschung in der Psychologie (pp.676-691). Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

Schmitt, Rudolf (2011). Review Essay: Rekonstruktive und andere Metaphernanalysen. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 13(1), Art. 2, https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-13.1.1767 [Accessed: December 3, 2023].

Schmitt, Rudolf (2017). Systematische Metaphernanalyse als Methode der qualitativen Sozialforschung. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

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Published

2024-01-29

How to Cite

Reichertz, J. (2024). Review Essay: About Metaphors and Monsters. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 25(1). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-25.1.4175

Issue

Vol. 25 No. 1 (2024)

Section

FQS Reviews

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Jo Reichertz

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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