The nerve to break taboos: New realism in the Dutch discourse on multiculturalism

Abstract

This article traces the emergence of one particular genre of discourse the genre of “new realism”, in the Dutch public debates on multicultural society from the early 1990s till Spring 2002. The focus upon different “genres” implies an interest in the performative power of discourse, i.e. the way in which any discourse, in or by its descriptions of reality, (co)produces that reality. Four distinctive characteristics of “new realism” are detected in three subsequent public debates, culminating in the genre of “hyper-realism”, of which the immensely successful and recently murdered politician Pim Fortuyn proved to be the consummate champion.