Nations need narratives in order to constitute themselves. Homi Bhabha claimed in his seminal study Nation and Narration that nations are “systems of cultural signification” and that they promote “foundational fictions.” National consciousness is based on a plot that allows for an identification of individuals with an “imagined community.” Elements of such a narrative can be found in the preambles of constitutions, in political speeches, in canonized works of literature, and in popular culture such as folk songs or blockbuster movies. The outlook of these national narratives differs widely in time and space. Most often nations rely on a heroic epos as a basic narrative; a good case in point is the United States of America. The American national consciousness often invokes the foundation myth of the New World: a free individual has to fight for his own existence and ends his pursuit of happiness by creating a home. In the US context, the state and social concerns are secondary – what is most important is the self-attribution of US citizens to a nation of free, independent men who are responsible for their own fate. For a long time, this heroic narrative has served as a model for other nations in the world.

The late twentieth century, however, witnessed the rise of another master plot for the construction of a national identity: namely, victimization. Not victory but defeat, not heroic self-assertion but tragic self-abasement stands at the center of this variety of nation-building. Both heroism and victimization allow for the delineation of an in-group: the heroes are considerably stronger than their enemies, while the victims are considerably weaker than their enemies. Nevertheless, common suffering may tie a national community together with even stronger bonds than does common triumph. Suffering opens an ideological vacuum that needs to be filled with sense. Victory is replete with triumphal sense that needs to be dispersed – but this reservoir of ideology may be exhausted quite quickly. Suffering lasts longer than triumph, and it needs narrative support for its endurance.

Narratives of suffering and victimization have a special epistemological status: they are veridictions in the Foucauldian sense. The victim always claims to tell the truth – a truth that may not be challenged or questioned.