Creating new discourses for new feminisms: A critical socio-cognitive approach

Highlights

• Analysis of 8M (International Women’s Day) banners in Spanish rallies (2018–2020).

• New feminisms (4.0., 99%) trigger new creative discourses of optimism and festivity.

• New technologies enhance new forms of protest and discourses.

• Highly creative discourse strategies, recontextualization and multimodal metaphor, have been identified.

• Discursive creativity is rooted in those socio-cultural events that are active and salient in the community at the moment of creation.

Abstract

Drawing from a critical and socio-cognitive approach to discourse analysis, this paper analyses the discursive creativity deployed by feminists in the production of slogans for the last 8M (International Women's Day) rallies from 2018 to 2020 in Spain. Findings show how the creative discourse strategies identified in the 8M banners, recontextualization and multimodal metaphor in the main, triggered by new feminist movements (Feminism 4.0, Feminism of the 99%), as well as by salient socio-cultural events taking place within the community, are construing a new discourse of optimism, festivity and empowerment, that is helping to transform gender relations in Spanish society.