{"title":"Popular and Scholarly Primordialism: The Politics of Ukrainian History during Russia's 2022 Invasion of Ukraine","authors":"Alexander Maxwell","doi":"10.2478/jnmlp-2022-0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/jnmlp-2022-0008","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract While nationalism theorists have mostly rejected primordialism, politicians and the wider public typically have a primordialist and essentialist understanding of national history. On the eve of Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin invoked several primordialist tropes so as to justify military action, which is unsurprising in a politician. Yet Western scholars criticizing Putin's historical narratives in newspaper editorials or in scholarly talks posted to YouTube only rarely suggest modernist or social constructivist historical narratives. Several posit counter-primordialisms instead. Primordialism, then, enjoys more support than is widely realized, even among scholars who ought to be familiar with its problems. Meanwhile modernist theorists of nationalism, however popular among nationalism theorists, require more vigorous promotion in academic circles.","PeriodicalId":37559,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Nationalism Memory and Language Politics","volume":"8 1","pages":"152 - 171"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90279604","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Dangerous Discourse of “Us” vs. “Them:” Spain's VOX Discursive Practices","authors":"Francisco Navarro, Aiden Yeh","doi":"10.2478/jnmlp-2022-0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/jnmlp-2022-0005","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Since the entry of the far-right party VOX into the Spanish government administrations in 2018, Spain's political scene has gone through a deep transformation. The disparity in opinions among the different parties concerning migration seems to tear the country's democratic foundation apart. This paper is a study of the language and discursive strategies used by VOX's leader, Santiago Abascal, articulating the party's populist propaganda for a united country to “make Spain great again.” The analysis was grounded on the theoretical underpinnings of Wodak's (2001) discursive strategies and Van Dijk's (1993) “Us” vs. “Them” framework. The data were based on Abascal's closing political campaign speech during the Madridlenian elections, which was televised in May 2021. The 30-minute video recording was transcribed, annotated, coded, and analyzed. The findings suggest a pattern of discursive practices aimed at diminishing other political parties and their representatives, vilify immigrants, and impugn government measures that were against VOX's authoritarian conservatism and nationalism. There was a predominant use of predication strategies to positively present VOX while denigrating its political rivals. Referential/nomination strategies were also used to divide the society between in-groups and out-groups. Strongly embedded in these strategies were perlocutionary acts used to incite hate toward the out-groups and evoke fear and anxiety toward the in-group, strategically employed as tools to gain votes in the elections.","PeriodicalId":37559,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Nationalism Memory and Language Politics","volume":"28 1","pages":"211 - 233"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81895001","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Basque Language (Euskera) As an Ideological Instrument in the Historical Construction of Basque Ethnic Identity","authors":"Francisco Javier Ullán de la Rosa","doi":"10.2478/jnmlp-2022-0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/jnmlp-2022-0007","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper analyzes how studies of a language and the language itself can be used as symbolic instruments to construct or support a differential ideological identity. The analyses of these studies have allowed us to undertake a sort of “archaeology” of the process of Basque ethnogenesis. All the authors instrumentalized philological studies as a way of expressing and claiming their ethnic identity, building their arguments on the basis of previous works (the “archaeological” layer being immediately underneath) at the same time that they reformulated them in order to better suit their specific conception of Basque identity as well as their particular sociopolitical interests. As if we were looking at a stratigraphic cut of an uninterrupted human settlement, the research unravels the existence of a narrative thread that, stratum upon stratum (that is, author upon author) connects the Basque chroniclers of the 16th to 18th centuries with the romantic fuerista writers of the 19th century, as well as Sabino de Arana-Goiri, the founder of the contemporary Basque Nationalist Party.","PeriodicalId":37559,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Nationalism Memory and Language Politics","volume":"74 1","pages":"234 - 254"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86279624","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Legal Performativity: Recognition of the Armenian Genocide in the Czech Republic","authors":"Gor Vartazaryan","doi":"10.2478/jnmlp-2022-0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/jnmlp-2022-0006","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Research on the political aspect of the recognition of the Armenian genocide has mostly focused on the realpolitik and its impact in terms of legislation and relations between political actors. A new dimension in research regarding the Armenian genocide occurred by presenting legal performativity within memory laws in France and Germany. Here, I build on the understanding that performative analysis may help us uncover the deeper circumstances of the recognition of the Armenian genocide, going beyond the classical dichotomy—recognition/nonrecognition. The case of the Czech Republic revealed the problem in the division of executive power regarding foreign policy between the government and the president. Furthermore, the analysis revealed the parliamentary instruments legitimizing the recognition of the Armenian genocide.","PeriodicalId":37559,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Nationalism Memory and Language Politics","volume":"50 1","pages":"194 - 210"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89821254","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Turning Ukrainians into a separate nation","authors":"Domagoj Krpan","doi":"10.2478/jnmlp-2022-0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/jnmlp-2022-0009","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Ukraine's national identity was born out of historical events which impacted the regions in Ukraine differently. In western and central parts of Ukraine, the people tend to be more pro-Western, while in the eastern and southern parts of the country, the people are more pro-Russian. This difference emerged from two approaches to the Ukrainian identity. The pro-Western part of the country believes that they were a separate nation from the Russians and should break ties with Russia. The pro-Russian part believes that the Ukrainians and the Russians are the same nation or two brotherhood nations that should stand together against outside threats. This paper will analyze which key historical events were the roots of the Ukrainian national identity and where the differences between the regional approaches are laying. This difference between pro-Western and pro-Russian attitudes influenced the Ukrainian political landscape from its independence until 2014. After the Revolution of Dignity, the occupation of Crimea, and the war in Donbas, the political situation started to change towards more pro-Western policies. The invasion in 2022 could be the final nail in the coffin of the Ukrainian-Russian brotherhood, and it might erase the last difference between the two parts of Ukraine.","PeriodicalId":37559,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Nationalism Memory and Language Politics","volume":"1 1","pages":"131 - 151"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88814197","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“They Are Khawārij of Our Time:” Relying on Background Knowledge and Long-Term Memory to Justify Fighting ISIS in Jordanian Political Discourse","authors":"Ahmad El-Sharif","doi":"10.2478/jnmlp-2022-0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/jnmlp-2022-0004","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study focuses on a discourse practice that metaphorically associates ISIS with an early Islamic sect known as the Kharijites. This practice constructs a discourse that calls back the background knowledge and memory of historical narratives and experiences that create conceptual frames that communicate meanings of war and atrocities. These meanings were used by King Abdullah II of Jordan to justify Jordan’s military participation against ISIS (circa 2014–2018). On the basis of the “blending theory” of conceptual metaphor, this study shows how the discourse practice of depicting ISIS as the Kharijites has undergone selective associations with the ideological aim of constructing persuasive and coercive discourses to justify military intervention against ISIS, primarily by foregrounding scripts of threat and victimization. That, in turn, leads to the instigation of illusive and incomplete associations.","PeriodicalId":37559,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Nationalism Memory and Language Politics","volume":"24 1","pages":"71 - 93"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87530570","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Defining National Memories: The Cases of Popular Rebellions in Ireland and Québec","authors":"C. Davis","doi":"10.2478/jnmlp-2022-0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/jnmlp-2022-0003","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract While studies on nations and nationalism have brilliantly demonstrated the influence of collective memory on national development, few studies have examined the reciprocity of this relationship. This article is therefore concerned with the laborious processes of memorizing the founding myths of both the Irish and Québécois nations. Indeed, while today the rebellion of 1798 in Ireland and those of 1837–1838 in Québec are central to their respective processes of identity-building, it has not been a calm process; the 1798 rebellion was buried in collective amnesia for almost a century and in Québec, the Patriotes rebellions have constantly moved in and out of collective memory. I argue, in this article, that the unstable definition of both nations harmed the process of remembrance. I am therefore interested in the long and conflicting journey that has enabled the Irish and Québécois nations to define themselves, respectively, by their religion and their language. Through a historiographical analysis of the speeches from several leaders of these two nationalist movements, this article shows how nations define and redefine themselves and how memories are also altered to meet those changes.","PeriodicalId":37559,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Nationalism Memory and Language Politics","volume":"55 1","pages":"51 - 70"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72934595","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Renarrating the “western territories:” training programs for college students in China’s Far West","authors":"Alessandra Cappelletti","doi":"10.2478/jnmlp-2022-0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/jnmlp-2022-0002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper shows how history is rewritten in China by shaping the memories of its youth, who create new communities by sharing and renarrating new memories. They can become a powerful channel to convey an official interpretation of local histories to a larger public, by marginalizing and appropriating local narratives. The idea behind the program for voluntary narrators under analysis “Explaining Dunhuang – 2019 University students’ summer programme to become voluntary narrator at Mogao grottoes”. The original name of the program in Chinese is Jieshuo Dunhuang – 2019 Mogao ku gaoxiao shuqi zhiyuan jiangjieyuan 解说敦煌·2019莫高窟高校暑期志愿讲解员. is to shape memories of China’s young and wealthy students about a place, by transforming its rich cross-cultural fundamentals, symbolic and inner meanings, into a representation of the Nation, able to convey powerful declinations of official narratives on the history of China. The analysis is conducted in consideration of the larger context of the construction and transmission of the official discourse on national identity in contemporary PRC. Specifically, the author provides evidence of how young Chinese internalize and disseminate the party line on Chineseness, and the subordinate role assigned within this process to “minorities.” Minorities are seen both as a threat and an opportunity: a threat to the Party and social cohesion as carriers of diverse identities, an opportunity for contrasting Chineseness with the Other, a backward entity, inadequate and unable to embrace—if not help—the path to modernity.","PeriodicalId":37559,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Nationalism Memory and Language Politics","volume":"317 1","pages":"23 - 50"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80122797","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Neither Civic nor Ethnic: Analyzing Right-Wing Politics Using a Theoretical Expansion of Kohn's “Dichotomy of Nationalism”","authors":"Matteo Iddo Cohen","doi":"10.2478/jnmlp-2022-0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/jnmlp-2022-0001","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Comparative research looks for “ethnic nationalism” to classify a party as either “extreme right” or “radical right.” “Ethnic nationalism” has turned into a common theoretical concept by way of various interpretations of Hans Kohn's work, developing a theoretical ethnic/civic contrast of national ideologies. The application of this dichotomy has been criticized for lack of theoretical depth that resulted in inaccurate analysis and, in some cases, harmful normative judgment. This article claims that this simple contrast between two types of national ideology omits complex theoretical views of nationalism that are neither civic nor ethnic, which are promoted mainly by the conservative right. By expanding Kohn's dichotomy into an “axis of ideological nationalism,” it offers a normative theoretical tool to be used in comparative politics, paving the way for a more comprehensive model of right-wing national ideology.","PeriodicalId":37559,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Nationalism Memory and Language Politics","volume":"28 1","pages":"1 - 22"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73638806","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Politics of Identity and Regional Integration – Updating Global Perspectives","authors":"Manuel Montoya, Lucio Lanucara","doi":"10.2478/jnmlp-2021-0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/jnmlp-2021-0012","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Regional integration (RI) is an essential part of the discourse on the global economy, viewed often as a “stumbling block” or “building block.” However, little research exists that connects RI in the context of a politics of identity (PoI), which can be used to describe the evolving tensions between national sentiment and regional economic cooperation. This paper performs a Web of Science and Google Scholar review of 136 articles to determine how RI is discussed in the context of PoI. Our review demonstrated that the conceptual frameworks normally used to think about PoI are underexpressed in the context of RI. We discuss why this is the case and identify themes to illustrate the connection. We then suggest conceptual frameworks to enhance the discussion of PoI as it relates to RI, particularly as it relates to the teaching of RI across learning groups.","PeriodicalId":37559,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Nationalism Memory and Language Politics","volume":"217 1","pages":"230 - 256"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79675437","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}