Myten om republikanismen: En dekonstruktion av dagens franska demokratiideal

Sammanfattning: This paper is a critique of the hegemonic democracy ideal in France today, the myth of the Republic. Based on critical theory, the paper also contains a normative attempt giving the chance to subaltern groups to tell their, less often heard, version of the "truth". The theoretical foundation is the ontological narrative perspective, where identities and actions are understood as being constructed by the telling of stories. The interdependent relations of different narrative dimensions are analyzed. The power over who gets to tell the story of the "truth" is understood as decided in the interaction by dimensions of metanarrativity, public narratives, ontological narratives and conceptual narrativity. The author argues, inspired by Chantal Mouffe, that consensus is an illusion based on exclusion of those that differ. A democratic ideal is proposed, where to avoid the rule of one hegemonic metanarrative, difference is not feared but welcomed. The aim of this paper is to deconstruct the republican metanarrative. This is done by analyzing the stories of two counter-narratives and how the republican metanarrative is told by those two opponents. The groups' selected are Ni Putes Ni Soumises and 9ème Collectif, organizations that are working for the rights of subordinate groups in present France, women in the poor suburbs and les sans-papiers, illegal immigrants. By analyzing the hegemonic republicanism told through these official narratives it becomes clear that the republican metanarrative, by claiming universality and consensus, is rendering invisible subaltern groups and individuals. Through this people are denied the right to tell their own stories, having them told by someone else, or left untold.