National Narratives, Postnational Narration

Narratives of the nation in the Olympic opening ceremonies: comparative analysis of Beijing 2008 and London 2012

“…He explains that as the narrative gives significance, coherence and continuity to a series of events, the narrative consequently naturalises certain constructions of reality as possessing meaning and truth. Narrativising a relationship between a ‘people’ and a civic‐territorial complex thereafter construed as ‘natural’, national narratives effected imaginary relations between peoples and the states that secured them to their apparatuses (Pease : 4). As collectively experienced fantasies, these narratives extended the reach of state regulatory mechanisms into the individual psyche where these fantasies have historically performed functions that are both extensive and complexly interrelated.…”

At the Formal Limits

“…One notable exception to this critical trend is Cedric Robinson's (1995) compelling essay. Since the book's reissue, critical attention has generally shifted to the more radical political undercurrents of the text's critique of Cold War America and the modern 2 See also Pease (1997Pease ( , 2000. nation-state in general Á in particular within the context of the transnational or post-national 'turn' in American studies.…”

From the particularistic to the universalistic: national narratives in Israel’s mainstream press, 1967–97

“…3 The national narrative is one of the most salient of the symbolic tools used for this purpose. This narrative is the literary expression of sets of symbols and values, which relate to the national collective as a distinct unit (see Pease 1997). In its simplest sense, the national narrative is the story that a (national) collective tells about itself.…”

“…The transition discussed here, from the particularistic pole of the national identity to its universalistic one, can be described in socio-economic terms, as Donald Pease (1997) suggests post-national narratives should be analysed. According to such a view, the historical conditions that gave birth to the particularistic national narratives (or meta-narratives, in Pease's formulation) have changed; in the socio-economic context of post-colonialism and globalisation, the once hegemonic narrative of the nation has been unseated.…”

“…According to such a view, the historical conditions that gave birth to the particularistic national narratives (or meta-narratives, in Pease's formulation) have changed; in the socio-economic context of post-colonialism and globalisation, the once hegemonic narrative of the nation has been unseated. Anachronistic national narratives, Pease claims, have been replaced by postnational narratives that are either accommodating of the new economic order of global capital or narrate forms of resistance toward it (Pease 1997). Accordingly, the appearance of the Israeli peace narrative can be understood as a post-national narrative that is accommodating of the new global economic order.…”