The Discursive Construction Of National Identity

This study explores and illustrates the construction and representation of Chinese national identity in Chinese language textbooks. It identifies the traditional and modern resources for conceptualizing the modern nation-state. It takes an approach to the study of national identity that integrates the discourse-historical method and the multimodal approach into critical discourse analysis (CDA). It describes and interprets the cultural and ideological dimensions of Chinese nationalism embedded in textbooks through verbal and visual representations. The perspectives presented in selected materials are examined with respect to how the national identity is discursively constructed in the textbooks after its economic transformation within the context of globalization. Key questions developed for this study are: (1) How is the nation imagined, represented, and projected to the world? (2) What cultural, historical, and symbolic resources do the textbooks use in the discourse construction of tradition and modernity? (3) How have textbooks drawn on evolving discourses of modern Chinese identity? Data is collected from two series of Chinese textbooks, including their corresponding student workbooks, teacher's manuals, and multimedia materials. Discourse-historical analysis is employed to understand how cultural meanings are encoded into the language of texts and serve to influence students' perception about China. Using multimodal analysis, it examines devices such as characterization, symbolism, and visual composition to extract ideological messages inherent within the text. It concludes that textbooks articulate an elite version of Chinese national identity. They present the Chinese nation as a historical and cultural entity by combining the assumptions of continuous Chinese civilization and of China as a modern nation-state. Through textbooks' cultural representations, the textbook authors address their audience, American students in our case, and embody Chinese national identity, modern progress, and historical continuity.

The Discursive Construction of National Identity

Filipa Perdigão Ribeiro, The discursive construction of collective narratives on Portuguese national identity: homogeneity or diversity?, Comunicação e sociedade, 34 2018, 325-342.

GBS_insertPreviewButtonPopup('ISBN:9780748637348');How do we construct national identities in discourse? Which topics, which discursive strategies and which linguistic devices are employed to construct national sameness and uniqueness on the one hand, and differences to other national coll...

This thesis examines the discursive construction and re-construction of Russian state and national identity and the subsequent articulation of foreign policy through the 2008 war in Georgia, and how the role of lexicon and terminology within international relations assists in creating, maintaining and reformulating the identity of states and nations and their respective practices.

In this paper we investigate the relations between cross-border mobility, national categorization and intergroup relations in a changing Europe. It focuses on young adults (N=34) commuting on a regular basis between the city of Bratislava (the capital of Slovakia) and the city of Vienna (the capital of Austria). Our study draws on the social identity perspective, however, we consider social identity as a discourse of (not) belonging, similarity and difference, which is continually (re)negotiated within a given social context. Semi-structured qualitative interviews, focus groups and drawings of the border area were used as research instruments. We have identified different types of experience in various subgroups of participants framed by (1) age at the time of arrival in Austria; (2) different mobility motivations and goals; (3) interaction setting; (4) the political and economic situation in Slovakia at the time of arrival to Austria linked to perceived status differences. On the individual level, the motivation to integrate or its lack seems to be a crucial element in the ingroup construction and perception of intergroup relations. 041b061a72