The Metaphorical Representation of Economic Crisis in the NBR Speeches

The paper is a content analysis of speeches and interviews from 2011 and 2012, available on the web site of the National Bank of Romania (NBR). The economic crisis as a topic in speeches, the voice of NBR charged with authority and legitimacy in a choir (sometimes turning into an uproar) of speeches on this issue and the argumentative and persuasive role of metaphors are the three main pillars in our approach. An additional explanation about the way in which we relate and are invited to relate to economic crisis is provided by the selection and display of metaphorical categories associated with it. Furthermore, these categories offer evidence on behaviour we display, individually or institutionally in our effort to deal with the crisis. This work was supported by the project “Post-Doctoral Studies in Economics: Training Program for Elite Researchers – SPODE” co-funded from the European Social Fund through the Development of Human Resources Operational Programme 2007-2013, contract no. POSDRU/89/1.5/S/61755.