The Rhetoric of the Body between Tradition and Contemporary Interpretation

Abstract

This study adopts a critical approach to the rhetoric of the body, considering it as an active rhetorical structure that contributes to shaping discourse through metaphor, opening an interpretive horizon that goes beyond mere semantic description to interrogate the mechanisms of rhetorical and cultural production, and then reinterprets it in light of bodily metaphors, where body parts and actions were employed to represent values and meanings., particularly the conceptual metaphor theory of Lakoff and Johnson, as well as cultural criticism approaches that unveil the ideological dimensions of metaphor, using the body as a primary medium to understand the relationship between language, culture, and identity. The research concludes that bodily metaphor provides a cognitive and cultural horizon that renders classical texts open to renewed interpretation and demonstrates the convergence of Arabic rhetoric with contemporary theories in understanding language as an extension of the body and human experience.