Discursive strategies in the construction of national identity: A critical discourse analysis of the Gibraltar issue in the printed media

Gibraltar is a community in which political conflicts are common, but has quite frequently been ignored in the academic world, despite its great interest and uniqueness. The present research offers a new perspective into the study of the Gibraltarian identity as it adheres to the theoretical paradigm known as Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), which analyses language in relation to the social context in which it appears, aiming at providing social criticism based on linguistic evidence. This article focuses on the representation of the Gibraltar issue in a crucial moment for this community – namely the 2002 referendum. The textual corpus consists of editorial articles drawn from Gibraltarian newspapers examining how the Gibraltarian community was perceived and represented. Hence, the present CDA of editorial articles in relation to the referendum held in Gibraltar sheds light on a controversial situation: the Gibraltarian community and its distinctive identity.     

Basque nationalism's changing discourse on the nation

The discourse on the nation is one of the theoretical cores of all expressions of nationalism, but varies in its elaboration from one to another and even within one particular form of nationalism by virtue of the identifying aspects that can be used in each case, and of historical and spatial context. The article analyses the example of Basque nationalism, which, through time, has developed two great official discourses and a third non-official one related to space. In effect, given that neither of the official discourses is entirely political and territorial, contradictions arise among nationalists (in the case of all of its trends) and, in particular, in certain areas not presenting the more or less primordial and objective characteristics. At the same time, a second, more subjective, discourse, one that is extendable to all nationalists and reaffirms them in their national identity, has developed in order to overcome these contradictions.     

From consensual reconciliation to a discourse of friendship

When in multicultural states the concept of reconciliation is tied to national unity in order to institute consensus and stability, the outcome often is exclusion and oppression of those others who do not ‘fit’ or who ‘disturb’ the very consensus and unity reconciliation purports to form. The hidden side of violence embedded in consensual reconciliation is the main theme of this paper. Our aim is to problematize the relations between reconciliation and nationalism on the one hand, and to offer an alternative working concept of friendship on the other. Based on an ethnographic case study of conflict between religious and secular groups in Israel, we examine the language of reconciliation and its semiotic gestures, in order to demonstrate that sentiments of ‘neither/nor’ or ‘either this or that’, when rooted in nationalist ideology of unity, obfuscate identities for purposes of homogeneity, closing the social and cultural space for different others who are present but not included in the discourse of reconciliation. By contrast, a discourse of friendship signifies a movement (rather than diffusion) between social and cultural identities. Our concept of friendship is based on a civic idea of causing no harm to others as a way of life.     

The American melting pot: A national myth in public and popular discourse

This article traces the development of the “melting pot” narrative in the United States. Despite being the subject of significant scholarly critique, this narrative continues to be a central myth and symbol of American national identity. Congressional debates show that it has been useful for legitimating immigration policy, while popular discourse frequently references melting pot symbolism. The melting pot narrative resonates with the public because it simultaneously embraces the American immigration experience and national unity. The article also highlights how this myth is constructed almost entirely around culture, overlooking larger structural disparities that exist between racial groups.     

Retroactive phantasies: discourse,discipline, and the production of race

The present inquiry considers how the practice and notion of race can be figured as a type of discipline that functions to achieve the subjection of the individual – to form the individual as a racial subject. Focusing on the constructions of blackness and whiteness within US racial rhetoric, and engaging the work of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler, I propose that racial identity is a retroactive phantasy that is always conditional on the subject enacting the very power that marks them: the formation and maintenance of subjectivity is premised on the individual being formed and forming themselves in relation to a normalized identity site and is, thus, always an action. Precisely due to this necessity to act, and to the incoherence of power, innovative acts of anti-discipline re-negotiate the ways in which racial subjectivity is lived and realized.     

Euro-myth: nationalism,war and the legitimacy of the European Union

This article engages with Montserrat Guibernau's argument about the ‘non-emotional’ nature of European identity. In critiquing this argument, this article also advances a broader argument of its own: that we are witnessing an emergent European nationalism. The article suggests that although there are few people who passionately defend European integration today, those that do are increasingly resorting to arguments that depend simultaneously on invoking and rejecting collective memories of intra-European conflict derived from the ‘emotive’ period of European integration in the 1940s to shore up the increasingly challenged legitimacy of the European Union today in its hour of greatest crisis.     

自我、他者与国家:福建琴江满族的认同

琴江满族是清雍正七年清廷所建福建三江口水师旗营官兵的后裔。据其家谱和墓碑的记载,他们的祖先是早年加入八旗的汉军旗人。1979年,琴江人集体要求将民族成份由汉族改为满族,同年建立了琴江满族村。本文在田野调查资料的基础上,考察并分析了汉军旗人的认同意识以及隐藏在认同意识背后的历史传说和文化渊源,并通过分析认同过程中自我、他者、国家三者之间的关系,指出了现代国家背景下少数民族认同的动态特征。     

流动的味觉观：迁居彝人的饮食通感、“家乡”体验与记忆认同

受人类学理论的“感官转向”“物质转向”等交叉影响,饮食人类学研究更加关注到食物怎样在跨地区、跨文化和跨民族交流中积极塑造个体或群体的身份、信仰、健康,乃至整个社群的结构转型等问题。通过对离开故乡、迁居外地的彝人的饮食个案研究,重点探讨民族传统饮食与社会记忆如何在流动语境中创造出一种由饮食通感锁定的“味觉观”。对流动的味觉观的民族志研究可帮助我们深入理解全球化背景下由饮食文化引出的文化建构、族群边界、文化审美、道德区分等问题。     

中华民族共同体意识产生、发展和完善的基本逻辑——从媒体话语叙事到文化价值认同的新透视

中华民族理论探索和构建的过程始终立足于近现代中国的现实发展。本研究通过对意识观念萌生、文化历史溯源和社会现实观照三个方面的历时性梳理,试图厘清中华民族共同体意识产生、发展和完善的基本逻辑。党的十八大以来,在党和国家关于民族工作的认识和新时代民族思想指导下,"中华民族共同体意识"作为中华民族"多元一体"的内在凝聚成为党和国家在新时代民族工作的重要思想基础。在中华民族的现代性发展过程中,不同媒体的话语叙事在铸牢中华民族共同体意识中有独特的内在传播逻辑。机构媒体兼具权威性和拟人性双重风格,在传播叙事中强化国家整体性。平台媒体的技术赋能,也强化了议题的交流讨论和用户的具身体验。内容生产者利用自媒体进行个人叙事,更多主体参与到中华文化的主动阐释和书写叙事,传递民族独特性。中华文明是在互相学习、吸收、融合的过程中发展起来的,各民族文化和而不同,各有特色,各民族在遵从各自的民族认同的同时,又始终秉持共同的价值认同。在新的历史发展阶段,中华民族共同体意识在不同的媒体话语叙事中得以发展、强化,技术的发展进步为不同民族和地区的人们进行民族话语表达和民族文化传播提供了便利的表演和展示平台。     

Israeli existential anxiety: cultural trauma and the constitution of national character

The present paper extends recent studies of national character – suggesting that the Israeli case revolves around a set of deep cultural codes which constitute various empirical manifestations. Broadening on this re-emerging paradigm, the study provides a specific case study of a major trait of Israeli national character, namely existential anxiety and fear of annihilation. It does so while advancing the idea that cultural trauma sets a context for Israeli national character. The analysis shows that Israelis constantly reference persistent and endemic existential fears of annihilation. They do so while tying together four levels: the mythological predicament, historical evidence, contemporary threats and future risks.     

Indigenous identity construction: enacted upon us,or within us

ABSTRACT

This commentary essay questions, theorizes, explores and grapples with the phenomenon of the creation of racial, social and cultural identity: in childhood as Native American identity is negotiated from others; and in adulthood as Native identity is constructed from within. ‘Indigenous Identity Construction: Enacted upon Us, or Within Us?’ is a commentary piece focused around Native American identity and how it is formed both through childhood and into adulthood. I analyze and interpret my experiences and understanding of my identity formation as an indigenous person- which usually is left out of the socio-political notions of modernity. Conceptualizations from ‘othering’ racial identities are discussed along with indigenous ontologies constructed within land and water. Through metaphorically revisiting past racializing incidents this piece continues working through the idea of othering and induction into whiteness in childhood, but also focuses on how indigenous identities might be constructed and sustained in adulthood. Efforts to model the indigenous assertion of self-determination and decolonizing the mind was used to re-present thoughts on the construction of Native American identity     

历史记忆与族群认同

本文借鉴安东尼.史密斯的族群—象征主义理论,分别从神话、仪式两方面论述历史记忆与族群认同的关系以及族群认同的变动,认为族群认同既是情感—象征的,也是工具—政治—经济的,我们应该看到它们之间的关联以及利益、竞争的分配和规则。     

Institutions,inculcation, and black racial identity: pigmentocracy vs. the rule of hypodescent

This research paper investigates the effect political institutions have on black racial identity. In particular, I study individual inculcation in contexts where political institutions institutionalize either of two forms of racial social structures – a pigmentocracy (the Dominican Republic), or the rule of hypodescent (the US South), and the effect such inculcation has on black racial identity. I sampled 101 respondents from the Dominican Republic and 102 from the state of Mississippi, USA. Consistent with the basic assumptions of my hypotheses, respondents in the Dominican Republic study sites showed a weaker degree of identification with blackness vis-à-vis something ‘whiter’. Nevertheless, respondents in the Dominican Republic sites demonstrated a stronger identification with blackness than what most conventional observers would have anticipated. Respondents in the Mississippi study sites showed a stronger sense of identification with blackness. Surprisingly, however, Mississippi respondents demonstrated a larger degree of neutrality than expected in their belief of being of a mixed racial heritage rather than just a black African heritage.     

Identity after Kosovo's independence: narratives from within the Kosovar Albanian diaspora

The nature of national identity after the establishment of Kosovo as an independent state was explored within a small group of Kosovar Albanians living in the UK. Although Kosovan identity was expressed at times in hybrid form, e.g. British Kosovan, identity at a deeper structural level was founded upon historical origins and culture inexorably linked to Albania and people of Illyrian descent and their territories. This was particularly the case in the discursive context of perceived threats to identity. Despite significant political developments providing the psychological space for an independent national identity, within this small group at least, identity was still strongly affiliated to, or assimilated within, an Albanian identity.     

Identity construction of second-generation Iranians in Australia: influences and perspectives

Understanding the complexity of identity in the children of immigrants has become important with the growing rates of global migration. A new theoretical construct refers to an individual’s subjective representation of the interrelationships among his or her multiple group identities and how their subjective identity could be explained.

The aim of this study was to examine the impact of their Iranian background and the social characteristics of their host society, Australia, on the second generation’s understanding of their national and ethnic identity.

This cross-sectional study is based on a quantitative method. Participants in the study were second-generation Iranians aged 18–40, living in Australia. Data were collected on how these second-generation Iranians identified themselves with Iranian society and/or with the wider society, and how their chosen identity was influenced by their background, their national beliefs, their perspectives towards the host country and the host country’s perspective towards specific ethnic groups.

Overall, 137 people participated in this study, and the results show patterns of biculturalism; the majority claimed hyphenated identity wherein the second identity was shown to be the weaker identity. The main contextual factors influencing their identity formation were birth place, acculturation and attitudes towards the host.     

壮族歌咏文化与壮民族的族群认同

作为一个世居广西、历史悠久的民族,壮族及其先民在其长期生活的岭南地区创造了具有独特民族特色和鲜明地域色彩的民族文化。其中,作为标志性和代表性的非物质文化遗产,歌咏文化凝聚了一代又一代壮族人的生命情感与诗性智慧,涵载着壮族成长的悠悠记忆,建构起壮族集体认同的文化纽带。     

指示性与民族记忆：中华民族共同体视域中的符号建构

指示性作为符号认知的基本框架,能使符号与记忆、记忆与认同产生联结关系,因此,指示性不仅是民族记忆的基础,更是形成民族认同的作用机制。基于现实因素,民族记忆在不同的时期可能会发生流变,成为区别于历史文本或其他族群文化的全新记忆,因而具备积极建构的可能性。在指示性理论的框架下审视"龙"作为中华民族之共同记忆的符号再现,可发现,它不仅是各族群共有的与世界之关系的缘起锚定,也是跨民族的时间节气指命名与仪式的重要符号,可由此反思中华民族共同体视域中的符号建构应当如何达成。