Kom ut! Stå fram! Ein metaforstudie av "Skeive historier"

The thesis investigates which conceptual metaphors and metaphorical linguistic expressions about sexual identities, emotions and other aspects related to sexuality can be found in coming out-stories, called «Skeive historier». The material consists of ten stories written by anonymous informants and was retriewed from the website of Skeivt arkiv (www.skeivtarkiv.no). In addition to investigating conceptual metaphors and metaphorical linguistic expressions, the thesis also attempts to explain what understanding of sexuality these metaphors forge. The main theoretical basis for the thesis is Conceptual Metaphor Theory, introduced by Lakoff and Johnson in 1980. The thesis investigates the use of metaphors in discourse, and is therefore also inspired by Critical Metaphor Theory. The thesis shows that the majority of the conceptual metaphors and metaphorical expressions about sexuality contribute to a negative perception of sexuality and sexual minorities. Sexuality is often conceptualized as an object or a «thing», something that is not physically related to the human body. The thesis also finds that metaphors related to emotions at large are motivated through the FORCE-domain, meaning that emotions are understood as various kinds of forces. Lastly, the thesis finds that aspects of sexuality related to the experience of coming out as gay, or aspects related to the hiding and exposure of sexuality, are to a great extent conceptualized using source domains such as CONTAINERS and BURDENS. These conceptualizations lead to the conclusion that the use of metaphor about different aspects of sexuality largely forge a negative perception of sexuality and sexual minorities