Christoffer Kølvraa

Narrating a ‘new Europe’: From ‘bitter past’ to self-righteousness?

The 1990s and 2000s saw a memory and remembrance boom at both the national and supra-/transnational level. Crucially, many of these emerging memory frames were not simply about a glorious and heroic past, as in, for example, traditional nationalist narratives. Rather, groups started to narrate their symbolic boundaries in a more inclusive way by admitting past wrongdoings. In this article, we look at a corpus of so-called ‘speculative speeches’ by leading politicians in the European Union and, against the aforementioned historical background, analyse their representations of Europe’s past, present and future. By utilising the discourse-historical approach in critical discourse analysis, narrative theory and elements of Reinhart Koselleck’s conceptual history (Begriffsgeschichte), we illustrate how, first, a ‘new Europe’, based on admitting failure, is narrated. However, second, we also show that such a self-critical narration of a ‘bitter past’ is, paradoxically, transformed into a self-righteous attitude towards Europe’s ‘others’.

European Fantasies: On the EU's Political Myths and the Affective Potential of Utopian Imaginaries for European Identity

The question of European identity today seems to be all the more pressing, as the current financial crisis is not only quickly developing into one of internal political cohesion for the Union, but has also certainly aggravated the long-standing problem of a lack of identification with the European political project among European populations. This article seeks to discuss this disenchantment with Europe through a concept of political myth. It argues that political myths entail both narrations of communal origins and utopian horizons of the communal future. Drawing on insights from Lacanian psychoanalysis, it connects the utopian dimension of myth to the level of affective investment in political communities, and suggests that the disenchantment with the European project might be partly due to the fact that its original utopian horizon – that of peace in Europe – today seems to have been achieved.

Peace and Unity: Imagining Europe in the Founding Fathers’ House Museums

Successive attempts to unify Europe have been characterized by unprece dented levels of violence – ranging, for example, from the wars of religion in the 17th century to struggles for territorial and racial unification since the 18th century. It is therefore not surprising that a peace-narrative, i.e. a narrative of nonviolent unification, has been present in the project of European integration since its inception in the immediate post-war years. Yet, this narrative has often taken a background role vis-a-vis an emphasis on economic utility. Since the late 1970’s and due to weakening legitimacy and lack of popular appeal, the issue of constructing a popular European identity has, however, been placed on the agenda of what is now the European Union (EU). Thus, an increasing shift from grounding the legitimacy of European integration in economic benefit towards a self-perception of the project as one of peaceful unification can be witnessed. The post-war unification of Europe is, in other words, portrayed as the victory over violence and war, something which was acknowledged when the EU received the 2012 Nobel Peace prize for transforming ‘a continent of war into a continent of peace’ (Nobel, 2012).

Ideology and the crowd

This article discusses the ideological role of crowd experiences. Utilizing both classical crowd theory and ideas from Lacanian psychoanalysis, it suggests that what happens to the subject in crowds can be understood as a de-subjectification linked to the drive and to an encounter with Other jouissance. Finally, it is argued that the concept of charisma might link the always transitory crowd experience with more permanent ideological identifications if it is thought as a retrospective rationalization, which involves assuming that the leader is the source of the ecstasy experienced in crowds.

The attraction of ideology: discourse, desire and the body

Abstract A key question regarding ideology is how we might explain or understand its ability to attract and maintain support from human subjects – in other words what has been called the ‘grip’ of ideology. In the following, we aim to show that such a grip needs to be understood as operating in three different modes. While most contemporary theories of ideology conceive of these modes as symbolic systems and thus understand their grip as generated through the structural inertia of being ‘taken for granted’ as the very fabric of our social lives, other scholars have instead emphasized the imaginary dimension of ideology – its ability to offer utopian horizons – and have elaborated on another kind of grip which focuses on the emotional attachment subjects may experience towards a certain ideological vision of the ideal society. But beyond these two modes, we argue that it is also necessary to consider a third in which the grip of ideology is constituted neither by its structural inertia, nor by its utopian eschatology, but in and through the offering of intense momentary experiences, sometimes of a transgressive or excessive nature, such as celebrations, political rituals or demonstrations.

Extreme right images of radical authenticity: Multimodal aesthetics of history, nature, and gender roles in social media

ABSTRACTOver recent years, the German extreme right has undergone significant changes, including the appropriation of symbols, styles, and action repertoires of contemporary (youth) cultures, sometimes even taken from the far left. In this article, we investigate extreme right visual communication through Facebook, focusing on claims to truth and authentic Nazism in relation to ‘history’, ‘nature’, and ‘gender roles’. These themes were central in National Socialism, but today need to be (re)negotiated vis-a-vis contemporary (youth) cultures. We show that while a traditional notion of ideological authority is enabled through visuals, there is also a strand of imagery depicting and celebrating ‘intimate’ communion. While this simultaneity leads to tensions within the ‘ideal extreme right subject’, we argue that such dilemmas can also be productive, allowing for the (re)negotiation of classic National Socialist doctrine in the context of contemporary (youth) cultures, and thus, potentially, for a revitalisat...