The Discursive Construction of Iranian National Identity in Selected Speeches of Imam Khamenei
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31185/eduj.Vol49.Iss3.3386Keywords:
Ali Khamenei, Critical Discourse Analysis, Discursive construction, Iran, National IdentityAbstract
This paper examines the discursive construction of Iranian national identity in selected speeches of Ali Khamenei, the Supreme leader of Iran. Four speeches of 22000-word corpus were selected and analyzed, based on the theoretical framework adopted by Wodak et al. (2009). Based on his charisma, relationship with his people and long history of Iranian success in negotiation, Khamenei has formulated the national identity of Iran via using the theme of ‘home nationlis’ represented by the in-group and out-group sub-categories, the construction of a common political present and future, narration of a common political past and creation of common culture. Also, the paper has shown that this identity was characterized by topoi of superiority, difference (from the US and its allies ideologically), revolution(ary) Iran, and religiousness (to refer to Islamic beliefs and values). Also, it has shown that using constructive and justification strategies were dominatingly used for this unique Iranian identity.
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Copyright (c) 2023 Rasim Tayeh Juboury, Muhanad Falah Abood, Ahmed Qadoury Abed
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
