Narrating a ‘new Europe’:From ‘bitter past’ to self-righteousness?  

Oleh:

Forchtner, Benhard ; Kolvraa, Christoffer

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Discourse and Society (Full Text) vol. 23 no. 4 (Jul. 2012), page 377-400.
Topik: Apologetic performances; bitter past; collective memory; conceptual history; corpus linguistics; critical discourse analysis; discourse-historical approach; European identity; judge-penitence; narrative theory
Fulltext: Forchtner_Bernhard, vol. 23 issue 4 July 2012. p. 377-400.pdf (677.39KB)

Isi artikel

The 1990s and 2000s saw a memory and remembrance boom at both the national and supra-/ transnational level. Crucially, many of these emerging memory frames were not simply about a glorious and heroic past, as in, for example, traditional nationalist narratives. Rather, groups started to narrate their symbolic boundaries in a more inclusive way by admitting past wrongdoings. In this article, we look at a corpus of so-called ‘speculative speeches’ by leading politicians in the European Union and, against the aforementioned historical background, analyse their representations of Europe’s past, present and future. By utilising the discoursehistorical approach in critical discourse analysis, narrative theory and elements of Reinhart Koselleck’s conceptual history (Begriffsgeschichte), we illustrate how, first, a ‘new Europe’, based on admitting failure, is narrated. However, second, we also show that such a self-critical narration of a ‘bitter past’ is, paradoxically, transformed into a self-righteous attitude towards Europe’s ‘others’.

Opini Anda

Klik untuk menuliskan opini Anda tentang koleksi ini!

Kembali