The rigid club rules: discourse-historical perspectives on British and Italian Eurocriticism

Last year’s dramatic Brexit referendum represents the apotheosis of the Eurosceptic tendencies which have, in some circles, accompanied the EU project since its earliest beginnings. This interdisciplinary collaboration, between researchers from the fields of Political Science and Linguistics, focuses on Eurosceptic/Europhile attitudes in two member countries, Britain and Italy. From the former perspective, it presents data which suggest that over the period 2010-2016, years in which there were elections for the European Commission, Eurosceptic attitudes have hardened significantly across the continent. At both ends of the political spectrum, support for Eurosceptical parties and leaders opposing the EU has increased. From the point of view of Linguistics, at the level of analysis of ‘discursive strategies’ and ‘linguistic means’, the paper focuses on metaphor and evaluative language in political discourse collected from speeches of some of the most prominent figures in EU discourse in those years. The aim is to compare rhetorical patterns and metaphors both diachronically and interculturally, in order to trace similarities and differences in conceptualising support for, or opposition to, the European project.