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Original Articles

A discursive reading of the emergence of Asturian nationalist ideology

Pages 97-116 | Published online: 04 Aug 2010

References

  • Torfing , J. 1999 . New Theories of Discourse , 192 London : Routledge . In general terms, nationalism will be understood here 'as a certain articulation of the empty signifier of the nation, which becomes a nodal point in the political discourse of modern democracy, and generally functions as a way of symbolizing an absent of communitarian fullness':, Asturian nationalism, in its turn, could be described as an ideological discursive articulation organized around the master/empty signifier of 'Asturies', that is to say, as a montage of various separate moments around a nodal point that binds them together
  • Laclau , E. and Mouffe , C. 1985 . Hegemony and Socialist Strategy , 105 London : Verso . According to Laclau and Mouffe, articulation will be 'any practice establishing a relation among elements [through the construction of nodal points/master signifiers which partially fix meaning] such that their identity is modified as a result of the articulatory practice':
  • Z´iz´ek . 1989 . The Sublime Object of Ideology , 126 – 127 . London : Verso . 'Fantasy is a means for an ideology to take its own failure into account in advance.' The thesis of Laclau and Mouffe that 'society doesn't exist' implies that every process of identification conferring on us a fixed socio-symbolic identity is ultimately doomed to fail. The function of the ideological fantasy is to mask this inconsistency, the fact that 'society doesn't exist' and thus to compensate us for the failed identification:
  • Z´iz´ek , S. 1996 . 'Fantasy as political category: a Lacanian approach' . Journal for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society , 1 : 77 – 85 . Then, fantasy exists only as a (non cynical) negation of the real, as a promise of an impossible fullness (that can be only sustained through the attribution of the non-domesticable force of the real to the presence of an external impediment--an enemy). See also
  • Máiz , R. 1997 . 'Nacionalismo y movilización política' . Zona Abierta , 79 : 167 – 168 .
  • Sollors , W. 1991 . The Invention of Ethnicity , xvi New York : Oxford University Press . In the field of ethnicity a primordialist approach would be the one that considers ethnic groups as if they were natural, real, eternal, stable, and static units, as pointed out by
  • Smith , A. D. 1995 . 'Gastronomy or geology?' . Nations and Nationalism , 1/1 : 3 – 23 . As a subject of study, they seem to be always already in existence, maintaining through time an essential continuum of myths and traits. Therefore the analytical emphasis should focus on the 'group's preservation and survival' (Sollors, ibid, p. xvi), usually threatened by something exogenous to the group. On the other hand, a perennialist approach to nationalism would be the one that considers the (modern) nation as a time deposit in which the ethnic past explains the national present, so that the nation would be understood as the current phase in the evolution of a natural always-existent community. According to the terminology of Smith, these are the 'geological' theories of nationalism:
  • Smith, ibid, p. 41
  • Bowles and Gintis . 1986 . Democracy and Capitalism , London : Routledge .
  • Máiz, op. cit., Ref. 6, pp. 168-169. The argumentai sequence of an ideal type of Expressive model would be as follows: a. There exists a previous ethnicity; b. that generates a pre-political matrix of collective interests (spread by the work of the elites); c. to the extent that it constitutes a collective identity, accepted by some segments of the population; d. This collective identity generates in turn a collective (nationalist) mobilization in search of; e. autonomy (self-determination and their own state, for instance). The state-building perspectives of most modernist approaches are just the result of an alteration in the order of these phases: e. a state; b. generates (and needs) a matrix of collective interest; d. so that, through the actions of a nationalist movement (run by state elites); c. ends by creating a (functionally required) collective identity; a. based on some already existent (although malleable in some cases) ethnicity. In both cases the point of departure is an already existent something (ethnicity, cultural differences, or whatever) that ends by having a political expression.
  • Brass , P. 1991 . Ethnicity and Nationalism ro , New Delhi : Sage . Máiz, op. cit., Ref. 6, p. 177. See also Smith, op. cit., Ref. 7;
  • Earth , F. 1969 . Ethnic Groups and Boundaries , Boston , MA : Little Brown .
  • Armstrong , J. 1982 . Nations before Nationalism , Chapel Hill , NC : North Carolina University Press .
  • Young , C. 1976 . The Politics of Cultural Pluralism , Madison , WI : University of Wisconsin Press .
  • Tarrow , S. 1994 . Power in Movement , Cambridge : Cambridge University Press .
  • Gamson , W. and Meyer , D. 1996 . “ 'Accessing public, media and electoral and governmental agendas' ” . In Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements , Edited by: McAdam , D. , McCarthy , A. and ZaId , M. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press .
  • Snow , E. and Benford , R. 1988 . “ 'Ideology, frame resonance and mobilisation' ” . In From Structure to Action , Edited by: Klandermans , B. , Kriesi , H. and Tarrow , S. Greenwich , NY : JAI .
  • Connor , W. 1994 . Ethnonationalism , 93 Princeton , CT : Princeton University Press .
  • Johnson , H. 1991 . Tales of Nationalism: Catalonia, 1939-1979 , New Brunswick , NJ : Rutgers University Press .
  • Maiz, op. cit., Ref. 6.
  • Evans , D. 1996 . An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis , 159 – 161 . London : Routledge . In a broad sense the Lacanian Real would be a sort of 'hard kernel resisting symbolization, dialectization, persisting in its place, always returning to it', 'a cause which in itself does not exist--which is present only in a series of effects, but always in a distorted, displaced way': Z´iz´ek, op. cit., Ref. 5, pp. 161-163. See also
  • Stavrakakis , Y. 1999 . Lacan and the Political , 82 – 90 . London : Routledge .
  • Cournos , J. 1921 . The Wall , London : Methuen . The Wall was, precisely, the title of Cournos's second novel, in which the life of the main character is continuously marked by the 'impossibility of being' what he had previously imagined. As quoted by Boelhower: 'His struggle with himself was one thing; his struggle with the world and material considerations was another; his struggle with his family was a third. These were three formidable walls. Life was a city which had fortified itself against him with three strong walls': Boelhower, op. cit., Ref. 18, p. 167
  • Lefort , C. 1986 . The Political Forms of Modern Society , 202 – 203 . Cambridge : Polity Press . Laclau and Mouffe, op. cit., Ref. 4, pp. 105-114. See also
  • Laclau , E. 1996 . “ 'Why do empty signifiers matter to politics?' ” . In Emancipations(s) , Edited by: Laclau , E. 36 – 46 . London : Verso .
  • Anderson , B. 1991 . Imagined Communities , London : Verso .
  • Stavrakakis , Y. 1999 . 'Lacan and history' . Journal for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society , 4/1 : 114 – 115 . Emphasis added
  • Code , D. H. 2000 . Negativity and Politics: Dionysus and Dialectics From Kant to Poststructuralism , London : Routledge .
  • Laclau , E. 1990 . New Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time , 39 – 45 . London : Verso . Stavrakakis, op. cit., Ref. 2, pp. 101, 105-106
  • Belenos , Asturies . 1998 . Memoria Celta , 11 Uviéu : Fundación Belenos .
  • Martín , P. San . 1998 . Asturianismu Políticau: 1790-1936 , Uviéu : Trabe .
  • Martin , P. San . 1999 . “ 'Prólogu' ” . In JRPA, Regionalismo: Doctrina Asturianista , 9 – 66 . Xixón : FNA .
  • Lefort , C. 1988 . Democracy and Political Theory , Cambridge : Polity Press .
  • Fernández-Pérez . 1978 . “ 'Movimientos regionalistas (1916-1932)' ” . In Historia General de Asturias , 147 Gijón : Silverio Canada .
  • Fernández-Pérez , B. 1980 . 'Regionalismo Asturiano: textos para su historia' . Cuademos del Norte , 4/1 : 123 – 143 . 'Isolationist' tendency due to a great extent to works such as: Fernández-Pérez, op. cit., Ref. 37;
  • Uría , J. 1984 . Cultura Oficial e Ideología en la Asturias Franquista: el IDEA , Oviedo : Universidad de Oviedo .
  • Giménez-Caballero , E. 1945 . Afirmaciones sobre Asturias , 12 – 15 . Oviedo : Diputación Provincial .
  • García , A. and Vega , C. 1994 . Del Centru a la Periferia , Uviéu : Ambitu .
  • Iglesias , I. 1995 . La Identidá Asturiana , Uviéu : Ambitu .
  • Sánchez-Vicente , X. X. 1997 . “ 'Los biltos de Caveda y Nava na sociedá asturiana' ” . In IV Xunta d'Escritores Asturianos, Lliteratura Asturiana nos 90 , 147 – 156 . Uviéu : Principáu d'Asturies .
  • Brugos , V. 1995 . Conceyu Bable: venti años , 37 – 38 . Uviéu : Trabe .
  • Brugos, ibid., pp. 36-37. Uría, op. ciu. Ref. 43, p. 150
  • Z´iz´ek , S. 1993 . “ 'Enjoy your nation as yourself!' ” . In Tarrying with the Negative , 203 Durham , NC : Duke University Press .
  • Preston , P. 1986 . The Triumph of Democracy in Spain , 18 London : Methuen .
  • Preston, ibid., p. 18.
  • Z´iz´ek , S. 1999 . 'When the party commits suicide' . New Left Review , 238 : 27
  • Del Aguila , R. 1984 . “ 'Los argumentos conflictivos' ” . In El Discurso Politico de la Transición Española , Edited by: Del Aguila , R. and Montoro , R. Madrid : CIS .
  • Norval , A. 1994 . “ 'Social ambiguity and the crisis of apartheid' ” . In The Making of Political Identities , Edited by: Laclau , E. 133 London : Verso .

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