Apprehending the rhetorical function of politicizing metaphors in Ngugi's Petals of blood.

This study sought to confirm the operation of Black's (1977, 1981) 'interaction view' of metaphor and lay down groundwork for doing a generic criticism on the proposed genre of counter-discourse. It entailed doing a critical analysis of a political novel, a critique of the failed government systems, from a global socio-political and economic context. The novel, Petals of Blood (1978), is authored by a Kenyan intellectual, Ngugi wa Thiong'o. A metaphoric criticism of the novel was conducted from a philosophy of language standpoint. The analysis supported the 'interaction view' of metaphor and clarified the concepts of 'naturalization,' 'de-politicization,' and 'de-historicization.' The interpretation revealed the operation of the 'interaction view' of metaphor and related it to Richards' (1936) view of metaphor, all of which date back to Aristotle's theory that metaphor works by analogy and resemblances. Richards' concepts of 'tenor' and 'vehicle' were equated to Black's concepts of 'principle subject' and 'subsidiary subject' respectively. Ngugi's metaphors were found to participate in 'naturalization,' 'de-politicization,' and 'de- historicization' in the context of individuals negotiating truth as they attempted to maintain a privileged position. The functional dimension of metaphor was established; as signs, metaphors select the context by signifying the communicators' intended focus. The following sequence was proposed toward the arrival of a meaning: intended focus $/to$ metaphor $/to$ context $/to$ meaning. The second task of the study, laying down the groundwork for doing a generic criticism on the proposed genre of counter-discourse, was fulfilled within the metaphoric criticism exercise. Ngugi's metaphors proved indispensable in initiating the transformative factors, 'transcendence' and 'differentiation,' as cited by Ware and Linkugel (1989). Confirmation of the presence of transformative factors in the genre of counter-discourse led to a conclusion that wherever dialectical tension (Fisher, 1973) is involved, members of either side will use transformative factors as self-defense strategies

Apprehending the power and ideological import of metaphor in president de Klerk's Rhetoric

Based on Black's (1977) filter effect of metaphor, the article articulates the relationship between metaphor and ideology as it interprets a corpus of speeches by former South African president de Klerk. By conducting metaphor analysis of de Klerk's speeches and evaluating the ideological import of those metaphors, this research contributes to communication theory, political science, and international affairs. The interpretation, which depicts the global nature of South Africa's apartheid system, recognizes the ideological nature of language. I argue that, with the help of his Western allies and their media, de Klerk and his party managed to create and maintain an international impression of a “new” South Africa while, at the same time, ironically salvaging their exclusive privilege

Un-masking President de Klerk's Obfuscating Rhetoric: International" Impression Management" Through Myth-Creation

Extraits du discours de M. Gaston Thorn, President de la Commission des Communautes europeennes a l'occasion du colloque organise par le Center For Strategic and International Studies et la fondation P. H. Spaak sur le theme des relations entre la CEE et les Etats-Unis. Bruxelles, 23 mai 1981=Extracts of speech by Gaston Thorn, President of the Commission of the European Communities, on the occasion of a colloquium organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the P. H. S

“McJustice”: On the McDonaldization of Criminal Justice

This essay examines the McDonaldization of criminal justice or McJustice. In doing so, it provides another useful way of understanding the development and operation of criminal justice in the United States. The McDonaldization of various social institutions has succeeded because it provides advantages over other, usually older, methods of doing business. It has made McDonaldized social institutions bureaucratic and rational in a Weberian sense and, thus, more efficient, calculable, predictable, and controlling over people (often by nonhuman technologies). The principal problem with McDonaldized institutions, and another characteristic of the process, is irrationality or, as Ritzer calls it, the irrationality of rationality. A primary purpose of this essay is to expose some of the irrationalities of McJustice and to suggest some possible responses to them