The Repetitions of Nationalism: Ontology, Fantasy and Jouissance

Abstract

What is it in nationalism that lends itself to such continuous permutations and repetitions, to its perpetuum mobile? Why are 'we' continuously investing in it despite its failures and indeed its darker side of exclusions, xenophobia and even genocide? This chapter reflects on the power and form of nationalism in (late) modernity by offering a Lacanian-psychoanalytical reading of nationalism's recurrences and its affective appeal. Specifically, this chapter develops three mutually enabling machineries that drive and animate projects of nationalism. These are (1) the ontological fissure at the heart of the nation/state and indeed the national subject/object (the split subject), (2) the fantasmatic nature of national narratives of utopian closure and wholeness, and (3) the jouissance (enjoyment) in nationalism, namely the temporal nature of affective belonging and the sense that this mode of enjoyment was lost and/or stolen by an Other.