Acknowledgments

The idea for this volume evolved as part of the research project Discourses of the Nation and the National, which was conducted at the University of Oslo from 2014 to 2017. The project focused on a comparative study of various aspects of the national across a range of discourses with the assumption that crucial aspects of “the nation” are constructed and deconstructed in discourse. The phenomena studied within the project included national symbols, borders and place, and metaphors. These were the topics of the three project symposia.

The project workshop Metaphors in the Discourse of the National, held on September 8th–9th, 2016, was dedicated to a systematic understanding of the levels at which metaphors are relevant in the study of “the national.” The contributions to the workshop offered insightful perspectives on the importance of metaphors for constructing nations and national identity. The chapters in this volume evolved from selected workshop presentations.

We are grateful to the Department of Literature, Area Studies, and European Languages (ILOS) for funding the project and the workshop, as well as various activities related to this book. We would also like to thank our colleagues, Anita Peti-Stantić, Nihada Delibegović Džanić, Sanja Berberović, and Tanja Gradečak-Erdeljić for providing us with valuable feedback on the texts and the structure of the volume. Our thanks go to Felicity Rash for copyediting, Jelena Parizoska and Dario Lečić for their assistance in formatting the book chapters, and Izabela Weber for preparing the index. Finally, we would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments, as well as the series editors and the entire John Benjamins team for their support and making the process an enjoyable one.