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POLITICS OF NATIONALISM5. IMAGES OF THE PAST AND NATIONALISM

POLITICS OF NATIONALISM

5. IMAGES OF THE PAST AND NATIONALISM


OUTLINE

Look at relationship between images of the past and nationalism:

(Orwell, 1984: “Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past”)

•Packaging the past: mechanisms of control

•Disseminating the message•Content of the message


PACKAGING THE PAST

WHAT AGENCY IS RESPONSIBLE?

Depends on relationship between “nation” and state:

• “Nation” controls own state(Britain, France, Spain etc.)

• “Nation” is controlled by another state(Ireland, Finland, Estonia etc.)

• Note East-West contrast(distinction between “civic” and “ethnic” nationalism)


PACKAGING THE PASTWESTERN

AND EASTERN EUROPE,

1911

“nation-states” versus

empires?


PACKAGING THE PAST

“NATION” WITH ITS OWN STATE• Central state agencies

(monarchy, presidency, etc., operating through various ceremonies and rituals)

• Universities and national academies(Academic historians, work available for popularisation)


PACKAGING THE PAST“NATION” WITHOUT A STATE

• Local “national” academies(RIA, Finnish Society of Science, Royal Bohemian Society of Science)

• Literary / historical societies(Irish Archaeological Society, Finnish Literary Society, Society of the Museum of the Homeland <Czech>, Latvian Literary Society, Estonian Learned Society)

• Individual historians: “fathers of the nation”(Palacky, Paisi, Daukantas)

• Historical novelists, folklorists(Topelius, Scott)


DISSEMINATING THE PACKAGETEACHING NATIONALIST HISTORY:“NATION” WITH ITS OWN STATE

• Public ceremonials(inaugurations, military parades etc.)

• Mass education system(civic loyalty inculcated in elementary schools, using images of the past and present)

• Military service / conscription(Training in loyalty to state)

• Informal channels(newspapers, popular culture)


DISSEMINATING THE PACKAGETEACHING NATIONALIST HISTORY:“NATION” WITHOUT ITS OWN STATE

• Possibly, mass education system(only if control is not centralised)

• Private schools(if permitted, and affordable)

• Informal channels(newspapers, popular culture, reading rooms and clubs sponsored by nationalist organisations—subject to censorship)


NATIONALIST HISTORYWHAT IS THE CONTENT?


NATIONALIST HISTORY


NATIONALIST HISTORY

CHARACTERISTIC COMPONENTS AND FUNCTIONS

• Myths of origin(definition of ancestry of nation)

• Myths of development(reinforcement of national solidarity)

• Myths of destiny(provision of inspiration for future of nation)


NATIONALIST HISTORY

MYTHS OF ORIGIN• Genealogy of the nation

– Identification with particular group(Israelite tribe, ancient Romans, Scythians, Celts)

– Notion of absorption of earlier and later groups(Celts in Ireland; Saxons in England)

• Birth of the nation– “Time immemorial” (Greeks, Basques)– Decisive formative event (battles of

Clontarf, Hastings)


NATIONALIST HISTORY

MYTHS OF DEVELOPMENT

• Golden age

(era of “national greatness”)

• Dark age

(era of oppression—conquest by alien power)

• Age of national struggle

(era of resistance to alien influence)


NATIONALIST HISTORY

GOLDEN AGE• Glorious political and military past

(Grand Duchy of Lithuania; Kingdom of Bohemia in 14th century; second Bulgarian empire in 13th century)

• Ancient spiritual achievements(“island of saints and scholars”; Poles as heirs to Slav democracy)

• Literary attainments(epic poems <Kalevala, Táin>)


NATIONALIST HISTORY

DARK AGE• Era of national oppression

(750 years of English “oppression” in Ireland; 500-year Turkish “yoke” in Bulgaria)

• Era of national fragmentation(Germany, Italy—possible to blame external powers)


NATIONALIST HISTORYAGE OF NATIONAL STRUGGLELong struggle against foreign domination, with four distinctive themes:

• National heroes(William Wallace, Robert Emmet, etc.)

• Traitors to the nation(Dermot McMurrough, Guy Fawkes, etc.)

• Great victories(Battle of the Boyne, etc.)

• Glorious defeats(Battle of Aughrim; Battle of White Mountain)


NATIONALIST HISTORY

IRISHREPUBLICAN POSTER, 1993


NATIONALIST HISTORY

MYTHS OF DESTINY

• National mission

(nation as provider of universal inspiration

e.g. imperial civilising mission;defence of spiritual / humanitarian values)

• National territory

(notion of historical territory, typically greater than the area now occupied by the nation, as the target territory)


NATIONAL TERRITORIES

“The national territory consists of the whole island of Ireland, its islands and the territorial seas” (Constitution, 1937, art. 2)

IRELAND

Catholic / nationalist / “Irish” Ireland



Maximimalist version of “historic Hungary”

HUNGARY

“Ethnic” Hungary, 1910



Maximimalist version of “historic Lithuania”

LITHUANIA

“Ethnic” Lithuania, 1897



ISRAEL

“Ethnic” Israel, 1947

Kingdom of David(Israeli Foreign Ministry)

“Historic Israel—the Holy Land” (Goodnews Christian Ministry)


THE END …

NEXT: PUBLIC CULTURE AND NATIONALISM

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