This essay aims, on the one hand, to clarify the ways in which aspectuality, temporality, and history are related and, on the other hand,to investigate the role of aspectuality in the constitution (or distruction)of a nation. Aspectuality should be regarded as a fundamental means —if not the core means— for the production of the image of a historicalprocess. That becomes particularly clear in situations of crisis or duringcultural explosions. The tensions between aspectuality and temporalityin specific semiotic formations translate and reveal the tensions betweenthe ongoing historical events and the bodies that are called to imaginea particular nation and act for or against its realization. So as to demonstrate the actual unfolding of these semiopolitical processes, the essay analyses two crucial moments in the highly paradoxical controversyconcerning the existence of the Sardinian nation.