Narrating crises and populism in Southern Europe: Regimes of metaphor

Abstract

The aim of this article is to propose an exploratory critical response to the two following main research questions: (1) why, in moments of crises, particular metaphors operate in the construction of interrelated cultural narratives; and (2) in which ways metaphors generate alternative intellectual horizons for social renewal under the rise of populism in the Southern European context. A metaphor is not only a linguistic device but also a cognitive operation that configures and shapes the pre-figurative poetic acts which articulate our worldviews. It is my working hypothesis that by studying the metaphorical systematicity produced within certain imagined communities, it is possible to ground the conceptual system that informs cultural and political practices such as populist movements, while also tracing novel metaphors that can activate renewal and produce structural change in our societies. In this essay, I propose to critically define such conceptual systems as ‘regimes of metaphor’.