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ABSTRACT
This article aims to analyse the impact of the two terrorist attacks that occurred in France in 2015 on the construction of French national identity. Drawing on critical discourse analysis, it discusses the nation-affirming strategies implemented by President Hollande and the role they play in restoring the authority of the state. It reveals how Hollande used the figure of the terrorist Other to recreate an imagined community based on an idealised Republican model and how he constructed an exclusionary discourse of sameness, which led to a closure of identity that risks alienating large sections of the population.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributor
Ariane Bogain is a Senior Lecturer in French and Politics at Northumbria University. Her research interests are French politics, national identity, the discursive construction of terrorism, discourse analysis, as well as France and the EU.