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.