'Talking with' and 'talking about' the far right: putting the mainstream back into mainstreaming

政治辩论、媒体和学术界普遍承认，极右派近年来在欧洲取得了越来越大的成功。事实上，联盟党加入意大利联合政府、英国独立党在英国脱欧运动中的作用以及马琳·勒庞（Marine Le Pen）进入2017年法国第二轮总统选举都表明了其日益增长的影响力。然而，对极右翼政党的选举收益的关注导致了对其对欧洲政治影响的程度和性质的误解，包括夸大和低估。调查这一趋势的话语研究主要集中在极右政党如何调整和“软化”他们的言论以吸引更广泛的受众，似乎不那么极端，从而减少对他们的污名。虽然修改政党话语的内部战略很重要，但主流化的过程更为复杂，需要进一步探索。因此，我的博士学位旨在将重点从极右翼政党本身转移，并探索允许他们，或更具体地说，他们的想法蓬勃发展的制度。它特别关注政治、媒体和学术界主流精英在创造这种接受环境方面的作用。本文采用批评话语研究、话语理论和语料库语言学相结合的混合方法，探讨了（1）“与之交谈”和（2）“谈论”极右翼的外部过程如何导致其正常化，不仅仅是从选举的角度，更是从其所主张的思想方面。“与之交谈”指的是主流精英对极右翼话语的挪用，强调主流化不是一个单向的过程。《谈论》探讨了主流精英对这些政党/思想的描述方式，调查了使用模棱两可或定义不清的术语如何有助于促进正常化进程。鉴于英国脱欧公投涉及“主流”和极右翼政治家围绕一个共同目标的融合，并且一直是媒体和学术界密切关注的主题，它可以作为探索这些问题的高度相关的案例研究。重要的是，虽然“与人交谈”和“谈论”可能会增加极右翼政党在选举中获胜的机会，但这两个过程必须被理解为一种意识形态上的成功。虽然比选举结果更难量化和具体确定，但这种话语影响的力量绝不能低估，需要加以质疑。因此，主流的行动是欧洲极右势力日益增长的影响力的核心。只有将“主流”置于我们对主流化的理解的核心，才能制定出适当的反策略，如果一个人希望阻止潮流。

It is widely acknowledged in political debate, the media and academia that the far right has enjoyed increased success over recent years in Europe. Indeed, the League's entrance into coalition government in Italy, the role of UKIP in the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union and Marine Le Pen's progression to the second round of the 2017 presidential elections in France, for example, indicate its growing influence. However, a focus on the electoral gains of far-right parties has led to misperceptions, including both exaggerations and underestimations, about the extent and nature of its impact on European politics. Discursive studies investigating this trend have largely focused on the ways in which far-right parties have adapted and 'softened' their rhetoric to appeal to a broader audience, appear less extreme and hence, reduce the stigma attached to them. While the internal strategy of modifying party discourse is important, the process of mainstreaming is more complex and requires further exploration. As such, my PhD seeks to shift the emphasis away from far-right parties themselves and explore the system in which they, or more specifically their ideas, are allowed to flourish. It specifically focuses on the role of mainstream elites within politics, the media and academia in creating this receptive environment. A mixed-methods approach is adopted, combining Critical Discourse Studies with Discourse Theory and Corpus Linguistics, to explore how the external processes of (1) 'talking with' and (2) 'talking about' the far right can lead to its normalisation, not simply from an electoral perspective, but more insidiously in terms of the ideas it purports. 'Talking with' refers to the appropriation of far-right discourse by mainstream elites, underlining that mainstreaming is not a unidirectional process. 'Talking about' examines the ways in which these parties/ideas are described by mainstream elites, investigating how the use of ambiguous or ill-defined terminology can serve to facilitate the normalisation process. Given that the Brexit referendum involved the convergence of 'mainstream' and far-right politicians around a common goal and has been the subject of intense media and academic scrutiny, it serves as a highly relevant case study to explore these issues. Critically, while 'talking with' and 'talking about' may increase the chance of electoral success for far-right parties, these two processes must be understood as a form of ideological success in their own right. Although more difficult than electoral results to quantify and identify concretely, the power of such discursive influence must not be underestimated and needs to be challenged. The actions of the mainstream are therefore central to the growing influence of the far right in Europe. Only by placing the 'mainstream' at the core of our understanding of mainstreaming can appropriate counterstrategies be devised if one wishes to stem the tide.