INTERPLAY OF GRAPHIC-METAPHORICAL ELEMENTS IN PAKISTANIPOLITICAL CAMPAIGN POSTERS: A VISUAL COGNITIVE STYLISTICSPERSPECTIVE

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.