The Discourse on "Post-Nationalism" A Reflection on the Contradictions of the 1990's
Abstract
Post-nationalism may be a presentiment depending on the geography one is situated in or produces knowledge about. Regardless of geography, however, it is possible to discern post-nationalism as a discourse which proffers new sets of ideas to a post-bi-polar world and to the culture of a putatively borderless, "global" economy. My purpose in this essay is to highlight some of the contradictions lurking behind this discourse and the historic forces that produce it. In positing that postnationalism's sphere of action is essentially that of a discourse and not that of an ideology, I am relying on Foucault who exhorts that discourse "has to take account of its own presentness in order to find its own place, to pronounce its meaning, and to specify the mode of action which it is capable of exercising within this present" 12 . Post-nationalism today exercises its action and meaning as the emergent discourse against a historically dominant and hegemonic nationalism.
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