Performing Nationalism: “Staging” and the 1996 Democratic National Convention

The aim of the study is to explore the links between political spectacle and staging national identity taking into consideration the example of 1996 Democratic National Convention. The author analyses the world of politicians and national leaders who address their constituen- cies with narratives dressed in the trappings of a collective belonging. Focusing on the national symbols that embody the “idea” of an imagined America, a living, breathing America rooted in a historical fusion of fact and fiction that is colored by the aspirations of what an America could (and possibly should) be he adopts performative studies approach.