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hegemonologue
[< blend of "hegemony" and "monologue"]
Very rare
DCHP-3.1 (Nov 2025)
Hegemonologue can be circumscribed as a form of mansplaining on a societal level.
n. — Colonialism, Ethnicities, Indigenous; originally Education
a type of discourse in which only dominant voices occur.
Type: 1. Origin — Hegemonologue appears to be coined by political scientist J. Marshall Beier in his 2005 book, International Relations in Uncommon Places by way of a portmanteau blending construction of hegemony and monologue (see 2005 quotation). Beier considers himself Canadian (personal correspondence, 24 Nov. 2025), which renders this term, in light of Chart 1 that attests international distribution, Canadian by way of origin. Beier also shared that in combining the two words, he was referring to "[...] a set of dominant assumptions about the world that are ceaselessly reiterated in discourse, in practices, in institutional logics, and more, all of which make Indigenous philosophical traditions seem implausible" (personal correspondence, 25 Nov. 2025). In Canada, the term is generally used in relation to Beier's work, whereas in other countries it is often used without acknowledgment of its origin.
Hegemonologue is also used in Performance and Place, a 2006 book edited by Leslie Hill and Helen Paris. Their book is a prevalent search result in both the Australian and UK domains, which explains the results of their respective domains in Chart 1. The US attestation in Chart 1 reflects the use of the term in academic domains, as the term is used and defined in several academic papers across the .edu domain. This may demonstrate that this very rare term is gaining traction and becoming more widely used, which would explain authors not citing Beier in their use of the term.
Hegemonologue is also used in Performance and Place, a 2006 book edited by Leslie Hill and Helen Paris. Their book is a prevalent search result in both the Australian and UK domains, which explains the results of their respective domains in Chart 1. The US attestation in Chart 1 reflects the use of the term in academic domains, as the term is used and defined in several academic papers across the .edu domain. This may demonstrate that this very rare term is gaining traction and becoming more widely used, which would explain authors not citing Beier in their use of the term.
As of 2025, the term is most commonly used in relation to Beier. However, the term was considered for CWOTY 2025, the Canadian English Word of the Year, demonstrating a certain relevance, despite its "very rare" occurrence, in the context of Canadian English (see 2025 quotation).
Quotations
2005
And it is thus that they merge with more vulgar--even instrumental--accounts and performances in what might be termed the "hegemonologue" of colonialism/advanced colonialism: that decidedly Western voice that speaks to the exclusion of all others, heard by all and yet paradoxically, seldom noticed, the knowledges it bears having been widely disseminated as "common senses" rather than as politicized claims about the world and our ways of being in it.
2009
I argue that this hegemonologue emerges from and is oriented to the reproduction of a systematic act of concealment: the suppression of people from the process and content of IR knowledge production, which allows the discipline to maintain and legitimize itself and its members, and to mask its complicity and investment in the reproduction of colonial patterns of domination.
2016
Instead, it is built within present power structures, and becomes a part of the Hegemonologue of human rights – Beier’s (2005) concept describing a hegemonic monologue – accepted at the international level already.
2019
Militarism, even when well-aimed by the political authority, comes up against a cultural legitimacy limit. The advance of militarism in liberal democracies may be dependent, in the first instance, upon an irruptive event and an interested political ideology and may even benefit from a suitable ideological alignment or hegemonologue and strong public relations strategy.
References
- Beier (2005) • Pubisher's site
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