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‘Making Our Country Great Again’: The Politics of Subjectivity in an Age of National-Populism

Mandelbaum, Moran

‘Making Our Country Great Again’: The Politics of Subjectivity in an Age of National-Populism Thumbnail


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Abstract

How could we understand the emotive power of national-populist discourses, indeed the calls to ‘make our country great again’? This paper directly tackles the recent Brexit discourse, within the broader context of rising national-populist sentiments. I offer a novel way of reading national-populism and the politics of subjectivity as I put forth a Lacanian-psychoanalytical framework, namely the void at the heart of national-populism narratives and thus their ability to produce and hail national-populist subjectivities, particularly through ‘fantasy’, ‘jouissance’ and the promise to recapture loss. I suggest that national-populism discourses appeal emotively and thus interpellate, at least partially, their subjects by offering unity and a ‘fullness to come’, the promise of filling the void, the promise of full jouissance. Since such national closure and unity are unattainable national-populism discourses must appeal to lost golden eras of greatness and by rendering the Other the cause of their failure.

Acceptance Date Jun 5, 2020
Publication Date Jun 5, 2020
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique
Print ISSN 0952-8059
Publisher Springer Verlag
Pages 451-476
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-020-09717-6
Keywords Nationalism; Populism; Brexit; Desire; Fantasy; The Other
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-020-09717-6

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