Discourses are the ways that people talk about different topics such as politics, professions, workplaces, social groups, and cultures. Discourses use linguistic shortcuts like metaphors, tropes, synecdoche, metonymy, and allegory to communicate ideas. These devices allow complex concepts to be explained and understood through comparisons to other concepts. Metaphors in particular can help open doors to new understandings by explaining one thing in terms of another.

1. Discourses
Antonio Lopez creative commons license 3.0 http://mediacology.com

2. Discourse is the way
people talk a bout
something

3. Examples:
Politics
Professions
Workplaces
Social groups
Cultures

4. Discourses consist of “short cuts”:
Metaphors
Tropes
Synecdoche
Metonymy
Allegory

5. “Metaphors open doors”
Metaphor: “Understanding
and explaining one kind of thing
in terms of another”
Lakoff and Johnson, Metaphors
We Live By

6. Trope: “Storytelling devices and
conventions that a writer can
reasonably rely on as being
present in the audience member’s
minds and expectations.” Tvtropes.com

7. Synecdoche:
“Part stands for the whole”

8. Metonymy: “Figure of speech
when an object replaces the
other that is closely associated
with it.”

9. Allegory: “A story, poem, or
picture that can be interpreted
to reveal hidden meanings,
Typically a moral or political one.”

10. A
B
C

11. “Earth”

12. “Pastoral”

13. “Wild”/“Wilderness”

14. “Pollution””

15. “Eco-Apocalypse”

16. “Eco-Utopia”

17. “Progress”

18. “Progress”

19. “Economy”

20. “People Power”

21. “Civilization”