Massimiliano Demata

This book introduces an innovative critical analysis of borders in contemporary political discourse, using examples from the Trump presidency and early stages of the Biden presidency to explore how borders are used as mechanisms of power to invoke different notions of national identity. // The volume considers border as discursive construct, reflecting on their importance in the construction and expression of national identity across different forms of modern political discourse. Employing a framework informed by Ruth Wodak’s Discourse-Historical Approach, Demata examines how analyzing discourse from the Trump and Biden presidencies can reveal unique insights into how politicaians and other stakeholders use borders to recontextualize historical discourses of national identity and employ discursive strategies of inclusion and exclusion in promoting the idea of “the nation.” In adopting an approach which situates these discourses within their historical and socio-cultural contexts, the volume helps to further bridge the gap between different disciplines toward offering a multi-faceted understanding of notions of borders and national identity in contemporary political language. // This book will be of interest to students and scholars in discourse analysis, language and power, language and politics, political science, and border studies.

This book addresses an under-researched area within populism studies: the discourse of supporters of populist parties. Taking the 2019 European elections as their case study, the authors analyse how supporters in eleven different countries construct identities and voting motivations on social media. The individual chapters comprise a range of methods to investigate data from different social media platforms, defining populism as a political strategy and/or practice, realised in discourse, that is based on a dichotomy between “the people”, who are unified by their will, and an out-group whose actions are not in the interest of the people, with a leader safeguarding the interests of the people against the out-group. The book identifies what motivates people to vote for populist parties, what role national identities and values play in those motivations, and how the social media postings of populist parties are recontextualised in supporters’ comments to serve as a voting motivation.

This book introduces an innovative critical analysis of borders in contemporary political discourse, using examples from the Trump presidency and early stages of the Biden presidency to explore how borders are used as mechanisms of power to invoke different notions of national identity. // The volume considers border as discursive construct, reflecting on their importance in the construction and expression of national identity across different forms of modern political discourse. Employing a framework informed by Ruth Wodak’s Discourse-Historical Approach, Demata examines how analyzing discourse from the Trump and Biden presidencies can reveal unique insights into how politicaians and other stakeholders use borders to recontextualize historical discourses of national identity and employ discursive strategies of inclusion and exclusion in promoting the idea of “the nation.” In adopting an approach which situates these discourses within their historical and socio-cultural contexts, the volume helps to further bridge the gap between different disciplines toward offering a multi-faceted understanding of notions of borders and national identity in contemporary political language. // This book will be of interest to students and scholars in discourse analysis, language and power, language and politics, political science, and border studies.