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- Volume 14, Issue, 2015
Journal of Language and Politics - Volume 14, Issue 5, 2015
Volume 14, Issue 5, 2015
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Banal nationalism and belonging within the echoed imagined community: The case of New Zealand anthems on YouTube
Author(s): Cynthia J. Whitepp.: 627–644 (18)More LessContexts for the performance of banal nationalism and belonging have changed markedly with the emergence of the Internet as a significant constituent and mediator of everyday activities. National anthems, depicted as echoed realizations of the imagined community, now exist in cyberspace, offering new public spaces for observing, participating in and responding to anthem spectacles. Drawing on the notion of ‘networked narratives’ (Page, Harper and Frobenius 2013), and previous research on modes of belonging (Jones and Krzyzanowski 2008, Krzyzanowski and Wodak 2008) this paper analyses user comments posted on six YouTube sites featuring New Zealand anthems. The analysis reveals how the commenting affordances of YouTube act as sites of narrative production for both the assertion of belonging, the evaluation of others’ claims and also for the drawing of boundaries. Through this analysis of imagined communities in cyberspace, it is argued that web 2.0 spaces offer us a different way of accessing situated practices of banal nationalism and belonging, while highlighting the interface between the personal and the political in the complexities and contingencies of belonging.
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Imag(in)ing the Nation: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Singapore’s National Day Rally Speech
Author(s): Chin Soon Peter Teo and Cui Ruiguopp.: 645–664 (20)More LessThis article focuses on the discursive construction of national identity through a National Day Rally speech delivered by Singapore’s Prime Minister in 2010. Inspired by the theoretical framework of Critical Discourse Analysis and using methods developed by Halliday and van Leeuwen, it offers a close analysis of the speech, which uncovers patterns related to the type, extent and effects of various agentive roles attributed to the country, government and people of Singapore. Macro-discursive strategies like the use of specific references and real-life anecdotes calculated to reify the success of the Singapore ‘brand’ and inspire Singaporeans are also discussed. Through this multi-layered analysis, the article demonstrates how discourse transforms an imagining of Singapore’s nationhood into a concrete image of what Singapore is and what being a Singaporean is all about.
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Marking a sense of self and politics in interviews on political engagement: Interpretive logics and the metapragmatics of identity
Author(s): Jan Zienkowskipp.: 665–688 (24)More LessThis paper explores the relationship between notions of self and politics in discourse on political engagement. By means of a heuristic inspired by the poststructuralist notion of logic and the pragmatic concept of metapragmatic awareness, the author argues that metapragmatic markers play an important role in communicating interpretive processes that inform preferred and disavowed modes of subjectivity. He relies on an interview conducted with an activist involved in Flemish minority politics in order to show how activists distinguish between preferred and disavowed modes of politics. In dealing with the multiplicity of identities and issues that constitute political debates, activists need to establish and communicate some degree of coherence. Metapragmatic awareness allows interlocutors to establish patterns of coherence that can be described in terms of interpretive logics. The author presents a strong case for taking the reflexive awareness of language users into account when studying society-wide debates.
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Patterns of Argumentation and the Heterogeneity of Social Knowledge
Author(s): Martin Wengelerpp.: 689–711 (23)More LessThis paper outlines an approach to the analysis of topoi that rests on a notion of topos as a synonym for “argumentation pattern”. The approach is embedded within the overall theoretical and methodical considerations of the discourse linguistic “school” called “linguistic discourse history” or “historic discourse semantics”. After explaining the background of topos analysis, several examples from migration-related public discourse will be used to illustrate the scope and limits of the approach proposed in the paper. A special focus will be given to two partial results of a study of the public discourse on work-related migration between 1960 and 1985 (cf. Wengeler 2003), supplemented by the treatment of the same topic around the year 2000. Within our analysis of the discourse on migration, manifold argumentation patterns will be highlighted in the different periods pointing to the heterogeneity of common sense functionalised for argumentative purposes.
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Wittgenstein and the Context of Rationality: Towards a Language-Practical Notion of Rational Reason and Action
Author(s): Andreas Grimmelpp.: 712–728 (17)More LessRationality as a central concept in occidental philosophy and social sciences never seemed to spark the interest of Ludwig Wittgenstein. Here it will be argued that – although “rationality” does not explicitly show up in his works – Wittgenstein not only deals with questions definitively ascribed to the conceptual history of the term, but he also works towards a transformation of the concept. Wittgenstein’s efforts were aimed at showing that there is nothing within human nature that defines what is perceived as rational, irrational, or non-rational, but that the differences are produced in human language and action. The necessity of such a transformative perspective on rationality, however, can only be adequately captured by recognizing the taxonomy of some of Wittgenstein’s best-known concepts. It will be argued that this systematic arrangement has to be completed by another concept: the context.
Volumes & issues
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Volume 24 (2025)
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Volume 23 (2024)
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Volume 22 (2023)
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Volume 21 (2022)
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Volume 20 (2021)
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Volume 19 (2020)
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Volume 18 (2019)
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Volume 17 (2018)
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Volume (2018)
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Volume 16 (2017)
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Volume 15 (2016)
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Volume 14 (2015)
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Volume 13 (2014)
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Volume 12 (2013)
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Volume 11 (2012)
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Volume 10 (2011)
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Volume 9 (2010)
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Volume 8 (2009)
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Volume 7 (2008)
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Volume 6 (2007)
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Volume 5 (2006)
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Volume 4 (2005)
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Volume 3 (2004)
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Volume 2 (2003)
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Volume 1 (2002)
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Radical right-wing parties in Europe
Author(s): Jens Rydgren
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Right-wing populism in Europe & USA
Author(s): Ruth Wodak and Michał Krzyżanowski
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Uncivility on the web
Author(s): Michał Krzyżanowski and Per Ledin
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