All About Iraq: Re-Modifying Older Slogans and Chants in Tishreen [October] Protests

Abstract

This paper analyses five main slogans and chants performed during the first 3 months of Iraq’s 2019 Tishreen [October] protests. It aims to trace their origin to examine the transformation in the narratives created by each version. Drawing on a social approach to narrative and a social semiotic multimodal approach to communication, I treat slogans and chants as an evolving genre and performance, capable of triggering, constructing, and negotiating a different set of narratives in each adaptation. Such narratives arguably determine their impact. Unlike earlier versions, Tishreen chants and slogans succeeded in conjuring up collective and cross-sectarian narratives that could challenge master political narratives and heighten an Iraqi identity in the first place. It would, therefore, be hard to erase them from memory.