Language:
English
Year of publication:
2007
Titel der Quelle:
Patterns of Prejudice
Angaben zur Quelle:
41,1 (2007) 21-43
Keywords:
Hitler, Adolf,
;
Antisemitism History 1918-1933
;
Antisemitism History 1933-1945
;
Antisemitism in language
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
National socialism Philosophy
;
Nazis Language
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Abstract:
Applies methods of cognitive metaphor analysis to Hitler's antisemitic imagery in "Mein Kampf", especially to the conceptualization of the German nation as a human body that must be cured from a deadly disease caused by Jewish parasites. Expressions from the conceptual domains of biology and medicine form a source scenario which centered on a notion of "blood poisoning" that was understood in three ways: as an act of "blood defilement", i.e. rape; as part of the source scenario of "illness-cure" (in which Hitler suggested himself as the only proper healer of the nation); and as an allegorical element of an apocalyptic narrative of a devilish conspiracy against the "grand design of the Creator". The conceptual differences of source and target levels were thus short-circuited to form a belief system in the framework of which genocide seemed to be the only appropriate cure. The results of the analysis opt decisively for the "intentionalist" explanation of the Holocaust rather than the "functionalist". It seems likely that the genocidal implications of Hitler's metaphor system were fully understood by his inner circle of followers. The actual perception of these metaphors by the German population still remains to be investigated.
DOI:
10.1080/00313220601118744
URL:
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