MULTIMODAL METAPHORS AND METONYMIES IN SOVIET ANTI-ALCOHOL POSTERS: ON MATERIAL OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE TWENTIES-EARLY THIRTIES AND OF THE YEARS OF PERESTROIKA

The present paper is devoted to the analysis of multimodal metaphors and metonymies in Soviet anti-alcohol posters. The analysis is conducted within the Cognitive Linguistics framework, in which metaphors and metonymies are not considered as mere rhetorical devices, but as cognitive processes which allow us to understand and conceptualize the surrounding world. Recently, increasing attention has been paid to multimodal metaphors and metonymies in both commercial and social advertisements. Posters, in which both verbal and pictorial elements coexist, are suitable for a multimodal investigation. The analysis focuses on anti-alcohol posters published in two different periods of Soviet history, i.e. in the second half of the Twenties and early Thirties and in the years of perestroika. The analysis aims at identifying the type and the function of multimodal metaphors and metonymies used in Soviet anti-alcohol posters. Particular attention is also paid to the interaction between the two cognitive processes and to the role of both verbal and pictorial elements in the posters. Although the image of the bottle is a recurrent and persistent concrete pictorial element used to refer metonymically to the abstract issue of alcohol abuse, the analysis reveals that, the metaphorical representation of alcohol or alcoholism changes according to social and ideological priorities, while the cognitive structure of the posters and their interpretation become more complex over time.