Micronations and Postnational Rhetorics

Abstract

This essay challenges the model of nationalism long favored in rhetorical scholarship by repositioning it as just one among numerous possibilities. To illustrate an alternative perspective, I employ a new materialist approach to postcolonial nations in sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically, I draw on Wangari Maathai’s later work to juxtapose Westphalian nationalism to micronationalism. I argue that close attention to spatial and material dynamics in the African postcolonial context compels us to reconsider rhetoric’s ties to the nation-state. I highlight some consequences of the materiality of space, nation, and rhetoric for rhetorical studies in thinking about rhetoric and (post)nationalism.