A WAR OF WORDS: MODELLING NATIONALIST IDENTITIES IN THE MALVINAS/FALKLANDS WAR
A WAR OF WORDS: MODELLING NATIONALIST IDENTITIES IN THE MALVINAS/FALKLANDS WAR

Summary/Abstract: This paper offers a case study of a situation in which nationalist discourses and power structures combined to construct nationalist identities in the context of the Malvinas /Falklands war, fought in 1982 between the United Kingdom and Argentina over the sovereignty of a small group of islands in the South Atlantic. Nationalisms played a key role in this war, since the prestige of the nation and its territory had to be defended. The paper draws on Louis Althusser and Michel Foucault to study how governing institutions and power groups based their call to war on their own particular version of truth. The British and Argentine media highly supported this truth in different ways. They were a key mechanism in the promotion of nationalist identities during the war, triggering patriotic feelings and serving as a vehicle for political propaganda. There were only a few exceptions that challenged or subverted the official discourse.

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