Rhetorical Theory and the Critique of National Identity Construction

Abstract A striking feature of scholarship on national identity is the relative absence of rhetorical theory, or theory related to the persuasive dimensions of discourse, especially given the fact that rhetorical theorists have been concerned with the manufacturing of public opinion and collective identity for over two millennia. To address this absence, this article discusses how rhetorical theories dealing with narrative theory, the social construction of publics, rhetorical constraints, ideology critique, public memory, political history and post-national identity help both to illuminate and critique emergent patterns of national identification. Keywords: Rhetorical TheoryNational IdentityPublic MemoryIdeologyRadical Democracy Notes 1. A sampling of key theoretical texts on identity would include: Foucault, Citation1972; Laclau & Mouffe, Citation1985; Shotter & Gergen, Citation1989; Taylor, Citation1989; Butler, Citation1990; Connolly, Citation2001. Important texts that touch on the rhetorical dimensions of national identity, but nonetheless generally fail to extensively incorporate rhetorical theory, include: Hobsbawm & Ranger, Citation1983; Kratochwil, Citation1989; Bloom, Citation1990; Ruggie, Citation1998; Hall, Citation1999; Lapid & Kratochwil, Citation1996; Finnimore, Citation1999; Wendt, Citation1999; Lawton et al., Citation2000; Kaufman, Citation2001. Two of a handful of very recent exceptions are: Crawford, Citation2002; Steger, Citation2002. 2. Such positive forms of collective identity are theorised by: Balibar & Wallerstein, Citation1991; McGee & Martin, Citation1983; Laclau & Mouffe, Citation1985; McKerrow, Citation1989. Such negative forms are theorised by: Anderson, Citation1983; Hedetoft, Citation1993. While some might argue that critical citizenship constitutes a 'Western' criterion for 'healthy' collective identity, history consistently shows that citizens who lack the capacity to critically reflect on issues of common concern are by far more susceptible to demagoguery. 3. This state of affairs can be traced to the influence of Peter Ramus, a medieval Scholastic who effectively destroyed the traditional study of rhetoric in Europe by divorcing invention and arrangement from the five canons of rhetoric (leaving only style, delivery and memory) and remarrying the argumentative dimensions of the rhetorical arts with logic (for brief discussions of Ramus' influence, see Bizzell & Herzberg, Citation1990, pp. 557–562; Perelman, Citation1982). 4. Aristotle (Citation1932, pp. 16–24) divided rhetorical acts into deliberative, forensic and epideictic categories. Deliberative rhetoric deals with the future and is concerned with public policy; forensic rhetoric deals with the past and is concerned with legal judgment; and epideictic rhetoric deals with the present and is concerned with acts of praise and blame. 5. McGee's notion can be usefully compared with Anthony Smith's (Citation1986) later discussion of 'ethnie', where Smith focuses on how nation-builders use historical episodes and shared cultural traits (ethnie) as inventional resources for the fabrication of national identity. The potential abuse of these resources is what concerned Theodore Adorno (Citation1986) in his exploration of the use of history for political ends. Friedrich Nietzsche (Citation1980), as we shall see, voiced similar concerns. 6. See Charland (Citation1987, p. 134). Exemplifying how national identity scholars oftentimes analyse discourse without taking advantage of the insights of rhetorical theory is Richard Handler's (Citation1988) otherwise excellent analysis of Quebec nationalism. For example, although Handler discusses the tropes of 'pollution' and 'death' in his work, he does not take advantage of Kenneth Burke's (Citation1970a) extensive discussion of these and similar terms—and their role in the process of identification. 7. Contemporary critiques have devastated the Cartesian notion of the fully rational subject (for a brief summary of several challenges to liberal humanist ideology and Cartesian rationality, see Belsey, Citation1980, pp. 130–137). 8. A vivid example of this process was Philipp Jenninger's forced resignation from his position as Bundestag President of West Germany in 1988 after publicly arguing that the German people were responsible for the Second World War. By making that argument, he ignored the dominant rhetorical strategy of identifying Germans as the ultimate victims of that war (see Bruner, Citation2000b). Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau was also forced to resign his position in 1995 after publicly implying that the Quebecois were the descendents of the New French, thus violating the dominant rhetorical strategy of separatists that the Quebecois were a 'multicultural' people (Bruner, Citation1997). This is not to suggest that identity entrepreneurs never bring up negative historical memories, but to suggest that the strategy is fraught with serious risks. 9. National identities are articulated through narratives that are necessarily shot through with absences (see White, Citation1992). 10. The metaphorical nature of human language is also at the heart of Nietzsche's language theory (see Behler, Citation1991; Nietzsche, Citation1989). 11. Foucault (Citation1984b, pp. 60–61) also discusses other shortcomings with traditional Marxist notions of ideology (for a discussion of the theoretical evolution of the term 'ideology', see Condit, Citation1994). 12. Rhetorical studies dealing with the ways in which monuments, memorialisation and various 'cultural performances' work to construct public memory include: Blair et al., Citation1991; Dionisopoulos & Goldzwig, Citation1992; Katriel, Citation1994. 13. Such a project is in line with Richard Bernstein's (Citation1983) work, where he persuasively shows there is both a tyranny in essentialism as well as a tyranny in relativism, and that radical deconstruction is just as dangerous for a democratic ethos as totalitarian essentialism. 14. See Laclau and Mouffe (Citation1985, p. 166). Arguably an attempt at problematising national identity took place in the years leading up to the reunification of East and West Germany, when critical historians sought to keep the horrors of the Holocaust fresh in the minds of German citizens in order to preclude the re-formation of a traditional national identity (see Bruner, Citation2000b; Knowlton & Cates, Citation1993). Additional informationNotes on contributorsM. Lane Bruner M. Lane Bruner is currently Associate Professor of Critical Political Communication in the Graduate School for Public Communication at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. His research specialities include rhetorical theory, nationalism and critical globalisation studies. Recent publications include: Strategies of Remembrance: The Rhetorical Dimensions of National Identity Construction (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2003), an edited volume on Market Democracy in Post-Communist Russia (Wisdom House Press, 2005), and scholarly articles in journals such as Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Discourse & Society and The Quarterly Journal of Speech

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