The spatialisation of the political imagination: A political discourse analysis of space, fantasy and inter-communal conflict in Derry city

Abstract

ABSTRACT From a Political Discourse Theory (PDT) perspective, this article interrogates the role of fantasy in the political-spatial discourse of conservative Protestants in Derry, a divided city in the north-west of Ireland. This article argues, along with recent studies, that the insights of PDT offers a post – foundational and discursive account of the spatial, one that is particularly helpful in understanding the dynamics of spatial contestation in divided societies. The category of fantasy is critical to this discursive conceptualisation of the spatial, as illustrated here through a study of how the fantasmatic spatial imaginary of conservative Protestants in nineteenth-century Derry structured their material practices of space-claiming. Empirically, the article examines two riots that occurred in Derry in 1868 and 1883.