Tuesday, November 15 at 19:00
Artget Gallery, Cultural Centre of Belgrade
Ruth Wodak (Lancaster University)
‘The Language of Walls’ - Analyzing Right-Wing Populist Discourse
Inclusion and exclusion of migrants and refugees are renegotiated in the European Union on almost a daily basis: ever new policies defining and restricting immigration are proposed by EU-ropean member states. A re-nationalization can be observed, on many levels: traditions, rules, languages, visions, and imaginaries are affected. Walls have - again - become symbols of belonging inside - or of being excluded and having to stay outside! Should we thus agree with Robert Frost’s famous phrase “Good fences make good neighbors”?
In my lecture, I will analyze these recent developments in respect to immigration and asylum policies across Europe from a discourse-historical perspective, especially in respect to the rise of right-wing populist parties across Europe (Wodak 2015, The Politics of Fear, Sage). I focus on the discursive construction of national and transnational identities and related ‘border and body politics’: Who are the neighbors, who the strangers? Who proposes - and why - to ‘save’ our country from strangers? The data - analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively - consist of a range of genres, from the UK, Austria, Germany, France, etc (citizenship tests and language tests, party programs, TV documentaries, and election campaign materials).