What are populisms? What are their main characteristics, what narrative mechanisms do they deploy that are capable of gathering the feelings of the multitude?
Through the historical-political reflections of Ernesto Laclau, Pierre-André Taguieff, Marco Revelli, Chantal Mouffe, Donatella Di Cesare, Valentina Pazé and Roberto Esposito, and the philosophical thought of Simone Weil, Jean-Luc Nancy, Walter Benjamin and Hannah Arendt, this article propose a path of analysis that looks not only at the mechanisms underlying populist consensus, but also at the alternatives and possible antidotes – to be played out, likewise, on the level of narrative – that often present themselves at the bottom of societies.
Originally published as:
C. Diotto, Seminare Vento e Piantare Radici. Populismi e narrazione, in “Segni e Comprensione” a. XXXIII n.s., n. 96 (2019), pp. 186-223.
Caterina Diotto 