Emotion and Interaction in "Sustainable" Persuasion

Starting from the question of the performative power of language, this paper unpacks and re-defines persuasion in strategic communication (Watzlawick, 1967, Bennet & Entman, 2001, Ferrari, work-in-progress) to introduce an experimental approach for critical persuasion analysis also enhancing the emotional and interactive dimensions. The notion of potential “sustainability” is introduced in persuasion and an alternative metaphor-based perspective is offered stretching “conceptual metaphor” (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, Lakoff 1993) into further integration and persuasion-oriented potential. When dealing primarily with the textual level of discourse, the distinction between persuasive versus manipulative (Van Dijk 2006) bias in a contextual perspective - what is commonly meant as ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ persuasion - can be rather drawn at a theoretical, ‘intentional’ and pragmatic level, and developed in terms of a continuum of “sustainability” (Ferrari, work-in-progress). More specifically, the performative power of language (Austin, 1975) is approached in an interactional perspective, i.e. introducing the biunivocal relation between language and thought. Such an interactional perspective leads to a rethinking of causal-and-effect relationships into the wider concept of “co-incidence” and the introduction of “strategic metaphors”. The concepts of persuasion, strategic communication and persuasion’s sustainability will be (re-)defined in a pragmatic perspective and in relation to the kind of power which is exerted – self-oriented persuasion: “red (queen) power”; other/community oriented persuasion: “white (queen) power” (Ferrari, work-in-progress). Methodologically, the main goal of the proposal is to fill a gap in the study of language about how to detect conceptual structures (metaphors, frames) starting from lexical elements (keywords) in the text, with a new persuasion-oriented focus on potential cognitive and emotional reactions and within a wider consideration of rhetorical-argumentative structures and narratives in a persuasion perspective (Ferrari, 2007, 2011, Steen, 1999). Put differently, the question is how can discourse -- in an interactional, social as well as cognitive account -- contribute to orienting thoughts and ideas, mind framing, choice making, as well as political action and, consequently, world order change. From an analytical perspective, how can bettering the awareness of these processes contribute to a critical persuasion reception? A consistent methodological framework is presented, mainly focused on conceptual metaphor and related tools with an emotional orientation and in a potentially interactional dimension. Some analytical perspectives for the analysis of persuasive strategies in the text will be offered, with a main focus on political discourse. Discussion follows on how may this awareness also proactively translate into improving persuasion skills in the language practice.