Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, 2021, 4(9); doi: 10.25236/AJHSS.2021.040916.
Xiaowen Xiao1, Yifei Li2
1Faculty of Foreign Studies, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China
2School of Foreign Studies, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China
Since 2020, the whole world has been busy in fighting against a new invisible enemy: COVID-19. As a public health emergency of international concern, COVID-19 has become the focus of media attention at home and abroad. War-related terminology is commonly used in news to frame the discourse around epidemics and diseases. The current study presents an analysis of the visual metaphor of COVID-19 in 24 editorial cartoons from China Daily. The conceptual and framing of the metaphors are conducted. The study finds that the metaphors in editorial cartoons evoke a general understanding of COVID-19 problem by activating the war scenario and this particular way of framing help to establish people’s confidence and make them work together. The study further affirms that visual metaphors are better in conveying rich and implicit conceptual and affective meaning, and can be direct manifestation of the conceptual metaphor without the mediation of language.
Visual metaphor, War scenario, Framing theory, Editorial cartoons
Xiaowen Xiao, Yifei Li. How We Conceptualize Epidemic--Visual Metaphors of COVID-19 in Editorial Cartoons. Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences (2021) Vol. 4, Issue 9: 101-111. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJHSS.2021.040916.
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