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Article published In: Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 20:3 (2021) ► pp.361–382

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‘We need to talk about the hegemony of the left’

The normalisation of extreme right discourse in Greece

ORCiD logo with link | Panteion University of Social & Political Sciences
Published online: 16 February 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.19053.bou
Abstract
This article seeks to explore the discursive rediscovery of the left menace and the ideological relevance between the far right and the right wing in Greece in times of political turmoil. Drawing on some historical aspects of modern Greece, first, I intend to explain the resurgence of Greece’s divided past. By emphasising references to Gramsci and the ‘hegemony of the left’, the article investigates the discursive construction of ingroups and outgroups on the basis of haunted memories of modern Greek history. By synthesising the Discourse Historical Approach and the concept of Aristotelian topos, I explicate how Gramsci has been re-utilised in an extreme right context by Greek far-right figures in order to stigmatise their ideological opponents. In a second step, my aim is to study the normalisation of political enmity by highlighting far-right discourses’ resemblance to New Democracy’s members’ rhetoric through references to Greek culture and economic imaginaries.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The Greek particularity: Historical divisions, the two party system and the new face of the extreme right
  • 3.Methodological considerations: Talking about culture, economy and the ‘hegemony of the left’
  • 4.Gramsci and the Greek far right: Fighting the (cultural) hegemony of the left in the name of the nation
  • 5.Seeking ways to defeat the left status quo – (Neo)liberalism against leftist obsessions
  • 6.Historical bloc and the hegemony of the left: The discursive legitimation of the far right
  • Notes
  • References
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