Literature Analysis/Review Assignment on Mediation of National Identity

This literature review is a part of my Media Studies master’s thesis. My overall research focuses on a stateless community residing in Kuwait (the Bidoon) that claims rightful citizenship to the Kuwaiti nationality. They have been continuously excluded in order to avoid their inclusion legally to the state and effectively to the national imaginary and identity of the country and its citizens. My research aims to explore how the Bidoon are represented in various media productions and how can such representations help decipher the politics of exclusion that inform Kuwait’s national imaginary and identity.

For this order, I need a literature review that focuses on concepts such as 1) the mediation of nationalism, national identity, national symbols, and national imaginaries 2) The internal “othering” that exists within nations and ethnic communities 3) national trauma and how it shapes national unity and identity 4) the mediation and representation of precarious communities and their exclusion from national narratives. The review is not limited to only these concepts; feel free to expand on areas that seem to match the overall goal of this section. I do NOT want background information or a historic recap of the Bidoon – the literature review should be written as if the reader knows enough about the ongoing stateless issue and focus on linking concepts and themes to the overall research.

Attached is my thesis proposal that initially explains where my research is heading. The literature review in the proposal can be looked at as a summarized first draft – I need an extended version of it that matches similar themes. Please read and refer to the introduction as a brief summary of the Bidoon issue in order to understand the overall research. I have also highlighted some sources in the bibliography that I have used in the proposal and I would like more sources from the same standards to be used in this literature review. Sources MUST be credible and scholarly.