Radical-right populism in Spain and the strategy of chronopolitics

Bibliographic Data

ID2898463
AuthorsDavid Divita (0000-0002-7804-6311, Pomona College, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume52
Issue5
Pages757-781
Publication date2023-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage in Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-4045 • E-ISSN: 1469-8013
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0047404522000227
OpenAlexW4280594385
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited46

Given ongoing debates in Spain over how to reckon with its recent past, time operates as a potent site for doing politics in the Peninsula. In this article, I develop the concept of chronopolitics-that is, the discursive configuration of time or history to advance political projects in the present-by analyzing a speech from the leader of Vox, a radical-right populist party in Spain. Through detailed analysis of the text, I reveal a range of chronopolitical strategies, including blatant acts of historical revisionism and the resurrection of slogans associated with Spain's authoritarian past. I also shed insight on more subtle forms of chronopolitical action: the confusion of temporal modes, the subversion of linear perceptions of time, and metapragmatic talk about historical interpretation itself. My aim is to illuminate Vox's particular tactics of persuasion, while drawing lessons from the case of Spain about the mechanics of populist discourse in general. (Spain, Vox, populism, chronopolitics, time, history

Aesthetics · Authoritarianism · Confusion · Democracy · Epistemology · Interpretation (philosophy) · Linguistics · Persuasion · Political science · Politics · Populism · Sociology · Subversion · Cultural and political discourse analysis · History · Law · Philosophy · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Psychology · Social Media and Politics

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Open DOIOpen Access