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Chapter 4. Singing for peace

Metaphor and creativity in the lyrics and performances of three songs by U2
  • Laura Hidalgo-Downing and Laura Filardo-Llamas
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Abstract

This chapter explores how metaphoric creativity contributes to shaping and recontextualizing ideological and socio-political practices in three songs by U2, “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”, “Please” and “Peace on Earth”. The contextual motivations of metaphoric creativity are analyzed by exploring three main dimensions. Metaphoric creativity is analyzed, first, in the conceptualization of the topic of conflict in Northern Ireland in the lyrics of the three songs. Second, it is analyzed as hinging upon the multimodal interaction of verbal and visual modes in the performance of the song “Please” in a YouTube video. Third, we explore the potentiality for creative recontextualization of the songs, which have been performed to reinterpret other political conflicts and tragic events, starting from the 9/11 attacks.

Abstract

This chapter explores how metaphoric creativity contributes to shaping and recontextualizing ideological and socio-political practices in three songs by U2, “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”, “Please” and “Peace on Earth”. The contextual motivations of metaphoric creativity are analyzed by exploring three main dimensions. Metaphoric creativity is analyzed, first, in the conceptualization of the topic of conflict in Northern Ireland in the lyrics of the three songs. Second, it is analyzed as hinging upon the multimodal interaction of verbal and visual modes in the performance of the song “Please” in a YouTube video. Third, we explore the potentiality for creative recontextualization of the songs, which have been performed to reinterpret other political conflicts and tragic events, starting from the 9/11 attacks.

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