The contradictory discourses of the Western identity: the formation and development of national identity in the West

Studying the Western identity discourses or identity theories reveals that, so far, there have been two identity discourses in modernism: (1) The national identity discourse, whose formation can be traced back to the decline of the Christian identity discourse at the end of the Middle Ages and from the beginning of renaissance to early 20th century. This discourse is best embodied in the nationalism discourse; (2) The identity discourse, in reaction to the national identity discourse, another discourse has gradually formed since late 19th century, simultaneous with modernism crisis, which is fully represented in postmodern era and the postmodern theory. This discourse is the discourse of identity, or the discourse of difference and pluralism, which, as opposed to the first discourse, is to destroy the national identity discourse and its components such as nation, nationality, and even nation-state. In this paper, in addition to presenting a brief history of these two discourses, their characteristics will be mentioned.