ABSTRACT
This chapter presents emerging theoretical tools and considers how they can help us conceptualize the role that popular culture plays in the formation of nationalisms. Both the “affective turn” (Clough & Halley, 2007) and the “circulatory turn” (Straw, 2010) in critical theory serve this analysis in the contemporary media moment. I demonstrate what these theoretical tools contribute through consideration of examples of mediated nationalism including Canada’s Heritage Minutes, national mourning rituals in Canada and the United Kingdom, and Donald J. Trump’s supporters’ use of MAGA Hats and memes, among others. I argue that these theories don’t replace our existing theories of nationalism via popular culture as much as they reanimate and refocus them. The way theories of affect and circulation center the qualities of intensity, immediacy, and speed, and focus on the nature of people’s participation, make them particularly suitable for expressions of nationalism in the digital age.
