Scenes of Violence

This book examines the emergence of far-right ethnic nationalist ‘defence leagues’ in Australia and the UK. For reasons outlined in the book, I refer to these groups as defence nationalists: that is, as nationalists who imagine themselves as defenders of the nation and therefore as national subjects par excellence. Drawing on psychoanalytic and psychosocial theory—and particularly the work of Lacan—I explore the narratives, imaginaries and subjectivities that sustain these groups, as well as the narratives, imaginaries and subjectivities these groups sustain. I examine how defence nationalist fantasies work to author and authorise nationalist identities, and their practices of embodiment, speech, violence, care and identification. In this opening chapter, I introduce several key events and groups in order to set the stage for my critical interrogation.