Grand Strategy and the (Re)Shaping of Greece–China Relations

This paper assesses China–Greece relations since 2006, examining them as part of China’s Grand Strategy, and Greece’s perception of them. The first aim of the paper is to provide an overview of China–Greece relations in connection with its long- and short-term goals. In essence, it focuses on understanding whether a Chinese Grand Strategy towards Greece exists. Second, it aims to examine the perception of Greeks over China’s foreign policy towards Greece. The intended contribution of the paper is to illustrate the response of national discourses over China’s increased presence in both the global sphere and specific countries. By offering the Greek perspective, we ultimately seek to provide a more balanced foundation for the ongoing scholarly and policy debate.

Discursive Chain and Movement in Crisis-Driven Nigerian Political Discourse: Corpus Evidence from Herdsmen Newspaper Headlines

A central tenet of critical discourse analysis spells that language in discourse meant for mass consumption is often permeated with a reproduction and/or a resistance of certain ideologies, assumptions, and knowledge characteristic of different social groups making up the society. One of such best scenarios is news headlines narrating crisis- driven national discourse in Nigeria, where almost all national discourses are driven by certain inherent ideologies and political power. In this paper, we propose a discourse chain principle uncovering the underlying socio-psychological idiosyncrasies of the par- ticipants (inclusive of agents and recipients) and processes in most national discourses in Nigeria. Combining concepts in corpus methods with critical discourse analysis, the paper shows a basic approach to operationalising ideologies in notational form. Apply- ing corpus analytic method to 761 herdsmen news headlines extracted from Nigerian newspapers, the present paper nicely illustrates the extent to which these news headlines move the discourse-at-hand (i.e. herdsmen crisis) to discourse-around. Such movement is performed by reproducing institutionalised ideological patterns revolving around identity politics (ethnicity), religion, question of nationhood, corruption, citizenry distrust, and political power imbalance. The paper argues that this discursive movement is often driven by a chain of discourse that defines the existence of the nationhood.

Imagining the phonograph, 1877–1888

This chapter focuses on the initial impact of the phonograph in Spain, arguing that, even though the device was rarely seen or heard in the country in its first decade of existence, it contributed to stimulating discussion and speculation that drew upon, and at the same time contributed to shaping, existing national discourses on science, technology, and modernity. At the same time, however, other key elements of the early reception of the phonograph elsewhere, such as the issue of the disembodiment of the voice, remained practically unexplored. The chapter covers the first accounts about the invention of the phonograph published in the Spanish press in 1877 and 1878, the range of demonstrations which took place between 1878 and 1882 at the hands of scientists and entertainers, and, finally, the multifarious discourses (in theatrical writing, juridical literature, and other realms) that emerged around the phonograph and its potential uses.

The Melodramatic State

This chapter talks about what were considered bad books for bad readers. At the turn of the century, it was certainly not high-minded literary works that predominated in the Arabic literary marketplace. Rather, the market privileged thrilling and emotional works, the vast majority of which were in translation and which prioritized titillation and “scandal” over moral, civic, or religious progress. The new popular novels were accused of more than just portraying unrealistic foreign situations; more dangerously, they were seen as promoting unhealthy reading practices and cultivating excessive, nonrational emotions. Commentators worried about the prominent place of “bad books for bad readers” in the national literary market, and bad readers were above all figured as women readers. Bad books spoke to and — more frequently — about women. Translations redeployed excess popular emotion as political, and they do so in such a way as to test gendered national discourses, complicating some of the very New Woman ideas that elite writers were putting forth. The chapter reinserts these popular translated novels and their major figures — the oppressed wife, the bad female example, and the good criminal — into the national conversation and shows how they make social and political claims.

Consuming the Mexican Body: Gender, Race, and the Nation in Macho Tips, 1985–1989

This article examines how the editorial and visual content of the Mexican gay magazine Macho Tips (1985–89) reproduced national discourses of race and gender to challenge the exclusion of gay men from the nation. Drawing on archival sources and oral history interviews, the essay demonstrates how the invocation of mestizaje, masculinity, and respectability shaped the production, reception, and content of the magazine—particularly its sexual imagery. The article argues that while Macho Tips appropriated, eroticized, and commodified national values of race and gender to make a profit, the magazine reconceptualized their meanings to debunk stereotypes that marginalized gay men. Macho Tips detached macho aesthetics from heterosexuality and successfully blurred the line between straight and gay Mexican masculinities. As a result, the magazine nationalized homosexuality and appealed to the desires of gay middle classes who sought to consume the Mexican masculine body.