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Article published In: Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 21:5 (2022) ► pp.721–741

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Politician, activist… or hero?

Rebel Narratives from Spanish 15-M movement

ORCiD logo with link | Pablo de Olavide University
ORCiD logo with link | Pablo de Olavide University
ORCiD logo with link | Pablo de Olavide University
Published online: 2 March 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.21003.gal
Abstract
This article explores how narratives and their discursive elements construct the idea of rebelliousness in subjects who followed different pathways through politics and activism after the Spanish 15-M movement. Methodologically, two representative examples of narratives have been selected on the basis of interviews with participants in the movement. To study these cases, the concept of rebel narratives is proposed from the perspective of narrative as social practice. The analysis applied here is based on a dialogue between the two cases studied, as discourses in which the activity of their tellers develops in certain contexts of discourse production. Based on this analysis, it is suggested that rebelliousness, in addition to manifesting subjective affiliations, fulfils a performative function with which the subjects legitimise their chosen path and constitute themselves, motivating, in the cases presented, revisions of the past or the rhetoric characteristic of a hero.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The study of rebel narratives
    • 2.1Theorising the object: Rebelliousness from the perspective of the subject
    • 2.2Empirical context: The 15-M movement as a narrative frame
    • 2.3From rebelliousness to discourse: narrative as social practice
  • 3.Analysing rebel narratives
    • 3.1‘Things to say’ or ‘wait and see’: Dynamics of interaction
    • 3.2Between politics and activism: Legitimising one’s own path
    • 3.3“David against Goliath” or “Stay and fight”: Rebel subjectification
  • 4.Conclusions: The performative use of rebelliousness
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
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