ABSTRACT
Over the past years and across a broad swath of national political cultures, “narrative” has emerged as a key concept for understanding and discussing politics. Scholars and pundits alike use the term to explain the persuasive force of political positions in general, and the appeal of populist movements in particular, as they are marked, presumably, by simple narratives. Looking at the transnational rise of new right-wing populisms, this article proposes to amend this focus on narrative. Both the German PEGIDA marches and the election of Donald Trump, it argues, are marked by symbolic strategies that are only insufficiently captured by the category of narrative. Instead, the new right populism on both sides of the Atlantic embraces incoherence and discontinuity to an extent that tests (and transgresses) the boundaries of narrative as a symbolic form and that is better understood by attending to the liminal areas it shares with other forms, such as play or database.
