Narrative And National Identity:Obama's Anatomy Of State Crisis

This thesis seeks to explain both the meaning and the role of national narrative that puts flesh to skeleton during the crises under the Obama Administration.As a fundamental and guiding question,the thesis asks what narrative means in the context of national identity and through what approach it can be useful for the leadership especially when a crisis emerges.By examining the Obama administration's response both in policy and rhetoric to crises,the thesis looks at the financial crisis in 2008 and the protracted War on Terror.The thesis then turns to consider what consists of the newly programmed crisis narrative under Obama and what might warrant as key indicators of such selections of story angle.With these questions in mind,this research aims to explore the emergence and the setting of certain identity narratives in face of crisis and gain more insight into Obama's version of state rhetoric 101.The result of the study supports academia's general conclusions about national narratives,that national narratives have been and continue to be used and manipulated by political elites in different ways and for different ends,but always closely related to nation building.Words that attract national communities can be amplified in times of crises.Citing certain civic values(progressivism)and identity-based traits(exceptionalism),the Obama administration has created their version of crisis narrative to defend his pragmatic progressive political practices.The stories that guide how America should act in times of crisis boil down to the overarching themes of US civil legacy,used by presidents since the founding of the nation.Therefore these narratives do not define but defend what America is,and they are selectively interpreted to reflect the preferred policies of the narrators.