The social construction of the Spanish nation : a discourse-based approach
This thesis analyses Spanish nation-building from a social-constructionist perspective assuming that nations are historically evolving social constructs and that nationhood is a largely modern phenomenon with pre-modern antecedents. A theoretical model for studying nationhood is proposed based on a critique of nationalism theories, Giddensâs social structuration model (Giddens 1984) refined by Sewell (2005); modernisation theories and discourse analytical approaches. A discourse-oriented methodology is proposed: Spanish nation-building, conceptualised as semiotically-mediated social action situated across time-space, is analysed nomothetically and ideographically, both in its broad historical context and in connection with recent narratives extracted from a large purpose-built corpus of newspaper articles. Several factors behind Spainâs problematic nation-building are identified in the socio-historical analysis: an unyielding geography inhibiting communications, a long history of political and cultural fragmentation, a late and uneven modernisation and the lack of hegemonic national narratives in the context of a long history of confrontation between different identities. The corpus-based discourse analytical
Garralda Ortega, Ăngel
PB Modern European Languages
The social construction of the Spanish nation : a discourse-based approach. This thesis analyses Spanish nation-building from a social-constructionist perspective assuming that nations are historically evolving social constructs and that nationhood is a largely modern phenomenon with pre-modern antecedents. A theoretical model for studying nationhood is proposed based on a critique of nationalism theories, Giddensâs social structuration model (Giddens 1984) refined by Sewell (2005); modernisation theories and discourse analytical approaches. A discourse-oriented methodology is proposed: Spanish nation-building, conceptualised as semiotically-mediated social action situated across time-space, is analysed nomothetically and ideographically, both in its broad historical context and in connection with recent narratives extracted from a large purpose-built corpus of newspaper articles. Several factors behind Spainâs problematic nation-building are identified in the socio-historical analysis: an unyielding geography inhibiting communications, a long history of political and cultural fragmentation, a late and uneven modernisation and the lack of hegemonic national narratives in the context of a long history of confrontation between different identities. The corpus-based discourse analytical
social construction spanish nation discourse based_approach analysis spanish nation_building social perspective assume nation historically evolve social construct nationhood largely modern phenomenon pre_modern antecedent theoretical_model study nationhood propose base critique nationalism theory social structuration model refine modernisation theory discourse analytical_approach discourse oriented propose spanish nation_building conceptualise mediated social_action situate across_time space analyse broad_historical context connection recent narrative extract large purpose_built corpus newspaper_article several_factor behind spain problematic nation_building identify socio_historical analysis geography inhibit communication long_history political_cultural fragmentation late uneven modernisation lack hegemonic national narrative context long_history confrontation different identity corpus_based discourse analytical