INTERPLAY OF GRAPHIC-METAPHORICAL ELEMENTS IN PAKISTANI POLITICAL CAMPAIGN POSTERS: A VISUAL COGNITIVE STYLISTICS PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Political campaign posters tend to embark the political vision, election mandate and socio-cognitive aspects of Pakistani society during all types of election spans. The election posters are purposeful designed to communicate, persuade and transfer information during election campaigns. The study intended to examine Pakistani election posters through the lens of visual-cognitive stylistics. 10 posters of each of the four popular political parties, thus n=40, selected through purposive sampling. The selected posters have been analyzed through foregrounding and cognitive metaphor theory (mentioned in Kövecse, 2021) on graphilogical, lexical, syntactic and semantic levels. The identified graphilogical and textual elements of the sample are then studied and interpreted. The cognitive metaphor theory and foregrounding perspective have been applied to evaluate the cognitive implications of the explored elements. Political Posters of Pakistani election campaigns strategically make use of stylistic devices and linguistic elements to influence the perceptions of the viewers. The study signifies political strategies through posters and unravels the mystery of political posters in Pakistani context.