Ideology, discourse and nationalism

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Abstract
This article argues against general or unitary theories of nations and nationalism, stressing instead the irreducible specificity of the national phenomena. It is argued that individual nationalisms always contain a very particular ‘content’ that aims to define the general culture and values of the ‘national’ people and which, in turn, is related to the construction and deployment of such values within political ideological discourse. The significance of this specific ‘content’ is obscured by unitary theories. t is further argued that the best way to understand and analyse this ‘content’ is a discourse analysis that relates the production of nation and national identity to wider political, and other, discourses. Conceptualizing nations and nationalism in this way enables us to see the centrality of nation in framing modern political discourse and its crucial place in the ideological ‘institution’ of modern society providing an appearance of ‘closure’ or ‘unity’ where there is division and contradiction.

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