“Silly and Superficial”: Headline Tone in Press TV and Voice of America Coverage of the U.S. Withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

On May 8, 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump announced the United States would withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran. President Trump had campaigned on removing the U.S. from the nuclear agreement, but the announcement still caught Iran and other parties to the JCPOA by surprise. This research analyzed three days of JCPOA-related news headlines from two international broadcasters: Press TV, headquartered in Tehran, and Voice of America, located in Washington, D.C. The majority of headlines published by both news organizations exhibited negative tone. Considering that reading a headline often substitutes for reading an entire news report, examining the headlines these international broadcasters used to present this event to their global audiences is a worthwhile pursuit. Keywords: Iran, United States, nuclear, headline, tone

A Disruption of the National Identity in the Brazilian-American Novel Samba Dreamers / Ruptura com a identidade nacional no romance brasileiro- estadunidense Samba Dreamers

The intensification of anti-immigration policies and discourses in the United States during Donald Trump’s administration reveals a reaction against the foreigner characterized, as Jacques Derrida proposes, by the widening of ethnocentric and xenophobic circles in face of the fluxes of capital, people, and information in contemporaneity. In this context, it is part of the critic’s responsibilities to address the link between literature and national identity, while attesting to the way literature transgresses the borders imposed upon it. This is the stance this article intends to take as it analyses Kathleen de Azevedo’s 2006 Brazilian-American novel Samba Dreamers. For this purpose, I depart from a discussion about the intrinsic relationship between hospitality and hostility to the foreigner, as well as from the possibility of literature of saying everything (tout dire), to argue that this novel objects to stable notions of nation, gestures towards a displacement of identity beyond the constraints of the state, and invites a post-national mode of thinking.Keywords: immigrant writing; post-nationalist literature; Brazilian-American literature; national identity.Resumo: A intensificação de políticas e discursos anti-imigração nos Estados Unidos durante a presidência de Donald Trump revela uma reação ao estrangeiro caracterizada, como coloca Jacques Derrida, pelo espessamento dos círculos etnocêntricos e xenofóbicos diante dos fluxos contemporâneos de capital, pessoas e informações. Nesse contexto, é papel do crítico abordar a relação entre literatura e identidade nacional, atentando para as formas pelas quais a literatura transpõe as fronteiras que lhe são impostas. Este é o posicionamento que se pretende ter aqui, enquanto se analisa o romance brasileiro-estadunidense Samba Dreamers, de Kathleen de Azevedo (2006). Para isso, parte-se de uma discussão sobre a relação intrínseca entre hospitalidade e hostilidade ao estrangeiro, assim como da possibilidade da literatura de dizer tudo (tout dire), para propor que o romance se opõe a noções estáveis de nação, articula o deslocamento da ideia de identidade para além dos limites geopolíticos do estado e convida a um pensamento pós-nacional.Palavras-chave: escrita de imigrantes; literatura pós-nacional; literatura brasileiro-estadunidense; identidade nacional.

Berserk!: Anger and the Charismatic Populism of Donald Trump

This paper explores the role anger plays in charismatic movements. Although scholars have long recognized the importance of emotions to the etiology of charisma, they tend to focus on mutual affection among leaders and followers, paying less attention to how anger—and particularly its subspecies, ressentiment—patterns charismatic power. Drawing on literature from political science, populism research, and the cultural sociology of charisma, we argue that ressentiment, which is associated with self-disvalue and an invidious need to blame outsiders, is key to theorizing the emotional energy that charisma delivers to revolutionary upheaval. The Weberian source for the intervention is his lesser known concept of ‘berserk-charisma’. Reorienting the focus of charisma research to account for its aggressive, ‘outward’ dimension has the benefit of drawing us closer to the vision Weber had for its social-historical relevance. We demonstrate our insights using the case of charismatic/populist support for Trump.

Mediating shame and pride: countermedia coverage of Independence Day in Poland and the US

This article adopts a comparative qualitative approach to studying the rhetoric of injured pride in the coverage of Independence Day celebrations by the right-wing countermedia in Poland (wPolityce.pl) and the US (Breitbart News) from 2012 to 2018. In both countries, the number of countermedia articles on Independence Day proliferated in the aftermath of the election of the Law and Justice party (2015) and Donald Trump (2016). Based on the analysis of the narrative strategy for affective polarisation, we argue that the countermedia mobilise support from an electorate of ‘the disenfranchised’ by strategically invoking emotions of shame and pride. By positioning the radical right as a political force that shields ‘patriots’ from the leftist ‘pedagogy of shame’, the outlets instrumentalise the mobilising potential of shame by transforming it into righteous anger and pride. This strategy results in a mediated ‘emotional regime’ that offers guidelines for an acceptable emotional repertoire for the members of the nationally bound in-group.

Trump, Sanders, and the Essential Contest Over “Populism”

Twenty-first century politics has been marked by breaks with tradition across large areas of the world. Allegiances have broken down, and surprising results have occurred: the Brexit vote; the rise of movements of the left in Greece and the right in France, Austria, and Germany; and the success or near-success of outsider candidates. Much of this has been labeled ‘populist'. But, by itself, this explains little. The term is complex, contested, and possibly confused. This dissertation sets out why this is so, clarifies some of the competing elements within the various conceptions, and explores some of the reasons that may underlie dispute. It applies these ideas to reports and assessments of the electoral campaigns waged by Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders for the US presidency, concluding on the utility of different conceptualisations of ‘populism'.