분열된 영혼? 포스트-트럼프 시대 미국 정체성 서사 경쟁

Abstract

The United States is a quintessential case, demonstrating that a nation is a narrative product, a place of competition and negotiation among multiple national biographic stories. As an immigrant nation lacking primordialist elements, including blood and land, anyone who reveres universalist creeds enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Federal Constitution can be American, which often makes the question, who are “we the people,” truly subversive and highly-charged. In fact, how to construct national boundaries and to define the national identity has been a central topic in the history of US politics. In this regard, this research initially seeks to situate the Trump era in the historical context of US political thought by analyzing the two competing narratives, liberal and illiberal, on the American self. Next, several cases in the period of 2019-21 are explored to understand how the battle for the soul of America was unfolded during the pandemic turbulence. Lastly, after describing the persistent crisis of US democracy in the Biden years, we search for ways to overcome the current identity crisis by developing a new common national narrative and achieving a 3political revolution.