Tracing the sign národ in political thinking in post-totalitarian Slovakia

• Authors: Catriona Menzies
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This paper sets out to examine political thinking in post-totalitarian Slovakia. Using the discourse theory and signification of Laclau and Mouffe, it considers the sign národ (a specific conception of the Slovak nation) in relation to democracy and the EU. Seeking to pinpoint political thinking amongst the general populace, it bases its analysis on an examination of newspaper articles on “Building the State” published in the 1990s. It traces the roots of the sign from the 1960s to the present day and predicts that the EU signifier will impact on the content of the floating signifier of národ.

Keywords

EN

discourse theory; Slovak politics; národ; signifier; post-totalitarian

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Human Affairs
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 52-61

Dates

published

2011-03-01

online

2011-04-19

Contributors

author

Catriona Menzies

• University of Leicester

References

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/s13374-011-0007-7