Military metaphors in the discourses of the pandemic in two post-Yugoslav states

Abstract The present study contributes to the growing body of work on the pandemic-time use of the war metaphor in public discourse, by focusing specifically on military metaphors in the media discourses of two post-Yugoslav, post-conflict states. Using the approach of Critical Metaphor Analysis, the paper explores the discursive realizations of the war metaphor in this context, with a particular focus on metaphor extension, metaphor entailments, and effects of earlier conflict memory on discursive use of the metaphor. The results show how metaphor entailments may vary according to the kinds of war made salient in discourse. Several forms of discursive use grounded in linking metaphorical and literal senses of war are identified, as creating specific local meanings, which in the case area observed worked to relate representations of threat to dominant instrumentalizations of historical memory and ongoing nationalist discourses. Beyond the local context, the findings are used to discuss some aspects of pandemic-time war metaphor use important both for the theorizing of adversarial metaphors in public discourse, and for more nuanced analyses of the discourses of crisis.