Cultural Nationalism

This article explores the role of literature and romantic nationalism in the creation of nations as this applies to the Faroese nation, in particular the case of the poet Nólsoyar Páll.
It is the ambition to discuss how literature can be a medium of collective identity-making, as it involves the canonisation of what is termed cultural saints (i.e. the heroic, mythological,
and legendary figures who are seen as founders of communities). The article will give an introduction to the research that considers the dynamics of selected vernacular writers, artists or scholars for inclusion into the canon of cultural sainthood. The following will
link a hitherto underexplored part of European romanticism to the developing theory of how durable forms of memory, such as public monuments, banknotes, hagiographies, are constructed.

A barrage of criticism has been levelled against the Venice Biennale’s national pavilion structure in recent decades, chiefly accusing it of anachronism on account of its western biases. Yet the tide has begun to turn, making much of this criticism sound a little worn-out. As this event increasingly attracts debuting ‘non-western’ national exhibitors each year, its pavilion structure event is beginning to be reassessed. Haiti was one such debutant at the 54th edition of La Biennale di Venezia held in 2011. This article will explore in detail the debates raised by Haiti’s national pavilion, particularly as they related to the central exhibition theme of ILLUMInations selected by the International Art Exhibition Director for 2011, Bice Curiger. In doing so this piece will consider both: how the national pavilion structure at the Venice Biennale was challenged, and our wider understanding of it deepened, by Haiti’s participation; and what Venice’s national pavilion structure might be able to offer a post-colonial, ‘third-world’ nation like Haiti.

One of the core concepts in 19th c. Frisian cultural/romantic nationalism was the link between 'Frisian' and 'Freedom (liberty)', as f.i. in Frysk en Frij ('Frisian and free'). The concept refers to the High and Late Middle Ages, in which Frisians had come to characterise their territory in terms of an ideology of political liberty. Later Frisian historiography almost automatically took the continuity of the concept for granted. However, the gist of this article, informed by the reading of the vast 19th c. literature on the topic, is that precisely this paired concept functioned as the paradoxical ultimate legitimation of the subjugated position of Fryslân within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The rationale behind this was that ‘Frisian freedom’ cannot be enjoyed without respect for the (Dutch) law.

Qual è stato l'atteggiamento della stampa del tempo fascista nei riguardi della danza teatrale? Quali i discorsi, le istanze e l'immaginario che, sull'argomento, emergono dalle colonne di quotidiani e periodici? Il volume affronta simili questioni mediante l'analisi di un'imponente mole di documenti quasi totalmente inediti e capaci di aprire prospettive inusuali sulla danza italiana del primo Novecento. Dal riconoscimento della danza come autentica forma d'arte alla contrapposizione (spesso violenta) fra "tradizione" italiana e "modernità" straniera, dalla difesa della tecnica accademica all'apprezzamento per forme di danza "libera", infatti, la stampa intercetta, filtra e rielabora processi culturali di ampia portata, la cui complessità è qui presa interamente in carico e restituita mediante una costante lettura critica delle fonti. Ne risulta un lavoro intimamente "corale", in cui le voci di anonimi cronisti si intrecciano con quelle di uomini di teatro e di artisti di spicco e che, proprio in virtù del suo carattere polimorfo, riesce forse ad aprire uno squarcio sulla contraddittorietà di un'intera epoca storica, il tutto mantenendo sempre fermo il punto di vista, volutamente e proficuamente "minore", sul corpo che danza.

This paper (print-published as a pamphlet by NISE (Antwerp, www.nise.edu) periodizes Romantic Nationalism in the long 19th century and traces its post-1914 afterlife in "banal nationalism". Conversely, it argues that we can understand many instances of banal nationalism as the lingering residue of Romantic nationalism.

Since the early years of New Zealand’s settlement, and leading into the present, scholars across various disciplines have drawn attention to the presence, and prevalence, of a national anti-intellectual culture. However, there is no single comprehensive work which expressly addresses the origins of anti-intellectual tendencies in the local context. This thesis is offered as a contribution to what is recognised as a lack of literature in this precise area. Against the idea that anti-intellectualism is simply a consequence of New Zealand’s pioneer heritage, I propose that anti-intellectualism is closely associated with broader historical trends and developments transposed from Europe. Specifically, it is argued that the decline of feudal relations, and the rise of Protestantism, were together conducive to the production of a conceptual apparatus and value system which privileged mercantile, worldly activity over the life of the mind. This value system, carried to New Zealand with early European settlers, was particularly amenable to the conditions of the colony, and was there brought to its logical conclusion, leading to an intensification of existing anti-intellectual sentiments. It is argued that such sentiments continue to be expressed today, as anti-intellectualism does not remain purely as a residue of the nation’s frontier past, but is rather reproduced and renewed under contemporary conditions.

Juvan’s book explores the asymmetrical relations between a peripheral literary field, such as that of Slovenia, and the world literary system. After offering a history of the idea of world literature and commenting on the evolution of its practices from Goethe to today’s globalization and transnationalism, the author focuses on the notion that Slovenian literature sacrificed its intrinsic individualism and artistic function because of its 19th-century engagement in the national movement. It was thus supposed to suffer from aesthetic insufficiency, underdevelopment, collectiveness and belatedness. This frustrating self-image evolved from comparisons of Slovenian literature with Western cultural centers, whereby Slovenian letters were mistakenly seen by its actors as a unique case. With reference to the Slovenian “national poet” France Prešeren (1800–1849), this generalizing notion has been termed the “Prešernian structure.”

Cet article, écrit pour un collectif à paraître sur les revues littéraires européennes au tournant des XIXe et XXe siècles, aborde la question de la place que tiennent, dans les revues parisiennes, de l'avant-gardisme aux grandes revues académiques, les littératures étrangères et leur importation, à une époque où se structure le "nationalisme" des intellectuels. Et contrairement à la doxa la plus commune, il établit que les revues les plus importatrices de littératures étrangères étaient les grandes revues académiques, à la fois grâce à leurs moyens incomparables, mais aussi parce que la littérature y tient un rôle essentiel d'ethnologie descriptive et de géopolitique culturelle à l'usage d'un grand public lettré destabilisé par la transformation du monde vu de Paris au temps de la "Première globalisation"

The paper critically re-evaluates the polyphonic and multicultural legacies of Kerala renaissance with reference to the democratic thought and social actions by the pioneers of Kerala modernity like the guru, Sahodaran, Poykayil Appachan and John Dharma Teerthar a disciple of the guru. The key accent of Kerala renaissance modernity is a powerful and radical rejection of the Ramraj where Sambuka is killed. Another democratic dimension is the rejection of Varnasrama and the upholding of freedom of opinion and religion in particular. These multicultural foundations of Kerala could be used as a site of resistance against the current hegemonic tendencies of homogenization and the totalitarian project in India at the second coming of Hindutva and its elitist cultural Nationalism.

The Making of a Modern Greek Identity…. explores the ways in which the teaching of Greek history in Greek schools during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century helped shape a Greek national identity. The period covered (1834-1913) is particularly significant as it was a time of major social, political, and cultural change in Greece.  In contrast to most nineteenth century European narratives whose national identities were mostly developed around contemporary indigenous cultural models, Greece looked to its ancient past when constructing its own concept of a national identity. After the formation of a Greek national school system and universal education in Greece in 1834, an idealized Modern Greek identity was taught in schools. This identity, which promoted an exclusive and original Greek historical past would linked the Modern Greek individual to the culture and history of ancient Greece.

In this chapter, I provide an ethnographic account of how ‘heritage’ has been used in the nationalist and pro-independence movement in Catalonia. Catalan heritage has taken on new significance as a symbol of resistance and separate history in the strained relationship with Spain. The focus here is on sites of historic national memory, and the foods associated with these places. I will demonstrate how promoting these foodstuffs under official categories simultaneously allows local actors to assert political will, create heritage, and encourage tourism. This chapter will cover issues such as the role of ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ in heritage creation and tourism, the heritage ‘label’ in Catalan cuisine, and heritage as national identity performance.

L'équipe de hockey du Canadien de Montréal est utilisée depuis de nombreuses années pour nourrir la guerre culturelle entre les tenants des nationalismes québécois et canadien. À travers ses activités, la corporation du Canadien de Montréal y a joué un rôle actif.
.
Ébauche en français d'un chapitre de livre paru en anglais, Emmanuel Lapierre, « La Soirée du hockey in Montréal », p. 62-84, dans Jason Blake et Andrew C. Holman, The Same but Different. Hockey in Quebec, McGill-Queens University Press, 2017, 339 p.

The Montreal Canadiens as a hockey team has been employed to nourish the cultural war between Québec and Canadian nationalism. The Canadiens corporation took an active part in that war through its activities.

Draft in french of a book chapter published in english, Emmanuel Lapierre, « La Soirée du hockey in Montréal », p. 62-84, in Jason Blake et Andrew C. Holman, The Same but Different. Hockey in Quebec, McGill-Queens University Press, 2017, 339 p.

This paper explores the numerous roles the army played during both the Republic and the Empire in serving as a bastion of Roman culture, both through the establishment of Coloniae Veteranorum and through through the intricate pattern of social networks that developed between legionaries and provincials.

The fine print of the National Education Policy 2020 introduced by the RSS-BJP government in July 2020 as well as the track record of successive Indian governments in education reveal that some of the very ideas that are causing much enthusiasm regarding the policy, in fact, mean very different things in reality.

This is a tiny effort towards exposing such untruths, to try to understand what awaits Indian citizens today and imagine what Free, Equal and Scientific Education for All, as a right not a marketable commodity, will look like.

- COLLECTIVE

What do we talk about when we talk about traditional Japanese arts and crafts? What types of objects are included in this category and what cultural, social and ideological meanings do they entail? And finally, how have traditional Japanese arts been invented and reinvented throughout the history of modern Japan in order to shape a unified and monolithic image of Japanese culture in a period of national identity making? In the popular imagination, the expression "traditional Japanese arts and crafts" often entails cultural expressions connected with the past and that convey specific ideas of "Japaneseness", such as the tea ceremony, flower arrangement, martial arts, woodblock prints and ceramics, amongst others. In this article, we will not to discuss the origin and features of these arts, but will instead examine them in the context of an institutionalized national discourse that reflects historical, political and social processes involved in the making of images of Japan. The goal is to discuss the definition of traditional Japanese crafts and show how their identity is intertwined with political ideologies, historical constructions and cultural representations. Starting from the first participations of Japan in the International Exhibitions of late nineteenth century, the rediscovery of old pottery kilns and the revival of tea ceremony amongst the urban elite in the 1920s, the folk crafts movement of the prewar and postwar years, the creation of the title of Living National Treasure in the 1950s and the more recent "Cool Japan" nation branding, this article will illustrate the main historical moments that have contributed to the definition, reinvention and revitalization of certain traditional Japanese arts in the last one hundred and fifty years, drawing on authors from the field Japanese studies, social sciences, philosophy and art history from a transnational and transdisciplinary perspective.

Bucovina is the historical name that a territory of Moldavia took after its annexation to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1774. In the post-communist period, his career took off again, this time as a brand name able to overshadow the old symbols of the city, especially the figure of the ruler Stephen the Great. The article takes into account the post-communist evolution of the Bucovina issue, questioning how its meanings are configured. One of the perspectives is that of self-colonization. The article draws on Cristian Cercel's research on phylogermanism in Romania and shows that the approximation of the term Bucovina is an autocolonial syndrome. In the last part, the development of Bucovina as a brand in a context of globalization is analyzed.

This essay puts Michelangelo's infamous attack on Flemish painting in its aesthetic and political context. The anarchy and philistinism which he imputes to Flemish painting draws on a historic association between those who lived north of the Alps with the Goths and Vandals who destroyed ancient Rome. Their modern mercenary descendants were still invading Italy, and their artforms - musical as well as visual - had done so too. However, Michelangelo’s main concern was not so much with Flemish art per se, as with the fact that it was so influential on Italian artists. These artists included Michelangelo himself, and the ferocity of his attack is due in large measure to the problems he was encountering while painting that most crowded of subjects - the Last Judgment. To make matters worse, he was working in the Sistine Chapel, filled with supreme examples of Flemish visual and musical culture.

Chi si serve oggi del medioevo? Tutti.
La politica attuale lo usa come una miniera da cui estrarre esempi e modelli ritenuti utili per capire il presente. Identificato con i «secoli bui», il medioevo è presentato come modello perfetto per spiegarci i «nuovi barbari», lo «scontro di civiltà» e il terrore che il nostro mondo stia per finire. Al contrario, se considerato come il tempo dei cavalieri e delle origini eroiche, il medioevo assume una funzione mitica per moltissimi gruppi politici e comunità organizzate, che lo usano per affermare la propria originale identità.
Questa attualizzazione del medioevo, spesso una vera e propria invenzione delle tradizioni, va sotto il nome di «medievalismo». La sua analisi è una chiave nuova e inusuale per leggere la società contemporanea e gli indirizzi che sta percorrendo.
Dalla militanza politica allo svago new age, dai tornei cittadini al tradizionalismo identitario cattolico, fino ai richiami alle origini dell'Europa unita e alla mitologia della Lega Nord, Tommaso di Carpegna propone con gli strumenti del medievista, ma con lo sguardo puntato all'attualità, un appassionante percorso che si snoda dagli anni Sessanta e raggiunge i drammatici giorni degli attentati in Norvegia del «templare » Breivik.

The embrace of markets and globalisation by radical political parties is often taken as reflecting and facilitating the moderation of their ideologies. This article considers the case of Hindu nationalism, or Hindutva, in India. It is argued that rather than resulting in the moderation of Hindu nationalism, mainstream economic ideas are adopted and adapted by its proponents to further the Hindutva project. Hence, until the 1990s, the Hindu nationalist political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), its earlier incarnation, the Jana Sangh and the grassroots organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) adopted and adapted mainstream ideas by emphasising the state as the protector of (Hindu) society against markets and as a tool of societal transformation for its Hindu nationalist support base. Since the 1990s, Indian bureaucratic and political elites, including in the BJP, have adopted a view of the market as the main driver of societal transformations. Under the leadership of Narendra Modi, in particular, the BJP has sought to consolidate a broader support base and stimulate economic growth and job creation by bolstering the corporate sector and recreating the middle and 'neo-middle' classes as 'virtuous market citizens' who view themselves as entrepreneurs and consumers but whose behaviour is regulated by the framework of Hindu nationalism. These policies, however, remain contested within the Hindu nationalist movement and in Indian society, generally. The recent emergence of a discourse on 'anti-nationalism' and the use of legal sanctions against dissent is an attempt by the BJP to curb these challenges.

This thesis analyses by comparison the processes by which literature becomes deep-rooted and popular music noble, in Brazil, to grasp the different logics of constructing the nation through culture. We examine successively the differentiation of cultural production fields by analyzing, internally and externally, two sets of logical operators of classification : the books about history of Brazilian literature, published between 1888 and 1964, and the popular music programs broadcasted by radio between 1919 and 1964. The valorization of traditions and the consecration of artistic pantheons, in these two areas, go together with the construction of status (author, compositor, producer, critic), of cultural practices and forms (œuvre, genres, styles) that are new, from the producers to their audience. Then we confront these two processes in order to bring out variances and non-variances and apprehend the multiple forms of cultural nationalism. Putting in relation the morphological transformations of Brazilian society, the formation of national markets and of cultural policies, and also the migration and professional conversion trajectories, we contemplate the modes of transfer of essentialists schemes of classification between, on one side, the scholar and the popular, and, on the other side, the national and the foreign. It’s a question of understanding how the different strategies of objectivating the national contribute, by turning sacred a cultural heritage, to put in coherence differentiated processes, to the reification of the idea that a “national essence” would express itself in all the fields of social life.

The article traces the development of Macedonian proto-nationalism in the 19th century, through the claims for cultural affirmation and дistinction and their two key manifestations - the use of the vernacular language in the literary production, as well as in education, and
the struggle for an independent church. The article locates the emergence of Macedonian proto-nationalism as early as the beginning of the 19th century when the first manifestations of cultural awareness and distinction found their expression in the use of vernacular dialects, as alternative to Greek. Then it proceeds to present the position of the Macedonian proto-national intellectuals on the need to use the Macedonian dialect in education. Finally, it looks at demands for an independent church, firstly in the re-establishment of the Ohrid Archbishopric, then in the Union with the Roman Catholic Church. The article, thus asserts two key arguments, namely that Macedonian proto-nationalism developed from the beginning of 19th century, as an independent movement, with its own specific expression and development; and can be divided into two periods: Pan-Slavic and anti-Greek (from the beginning of 19th century, to the 1840s); Macedonist and anti-Bulgarian (from the 1840s to the outbreak of the revolutionary
movement).

The purpose of this essay is to review some of the basic conceptual debates in nationalism studies under the broad and interrelated categories of ethnicity, nations and nationalism, and classification of nations and nationalism. The sheer volume of literature produced on these subjects, particularly since the collapse of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, poses a major challenge, but the present selective focus using key and influential texts as examples should provide the reader with a solid foundation for further research. The essay has three sections, organized as follows. The first, on ethnicity, provides a brief history of the term and an overview of what is usually described as the debate between primordialist and instrumentalist accounts of ethnicity, but suggests that this characterization is misleading. Section two, on nations and nationalism, begins with a similar etymology before surveying the debate between modernist, perennialist, and ethno-symbolist conceptions of the nature of and relations between those two phenomena. Finally, the third section reviews the range of ways that nations and nationalism have been classified, including the now dominant distinction between civic and ethnic types.

This essay is part of the "Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Migration" section of the International Studies Association's "International Studies Encyclopedia" (www.isacompendium.com).

Traces the rise and transnational diffusion of (non-classical) mythological studies in 19th-century Europe. Unable to establish itself as a proper scholarly discipline, mythological studies provided an important cultural-antiquarian background repertoire to nationally minded scholars and cultural nationalists.

This article (originally delivered at the Sir John Rhys Memorial Lecture, 22 March 2016) looks at the importance of the Gaelic language for the development of Irish nationalism in the decades leading up to, and following the Easter Rising of 1916. This importance was mainly symbolical: the language was used mainly by revivalist activists, in a restricted number of functional registers, and largely as an enabling platform of other consciousness-raising activities. It is suggested, however, that such a symbolical instrumentalization is by no means inconsequential and should be analysed as an important feature of cultural nationalism, not only in Ireland.

"This article examines two developments in Scottish architecture
hitherto considered unrelated: a late medieval Romanesque
revival in ecclesiastical architecture and the arrival of
Italian Renaissance motifs. The first part sets various Romanesque-
looking architectural features in the wider political
and cultural context of Scotland c. 1380-c. 1520 to show that,
far from being retardataire, they reflect a mood of Scottish
national self-awareness and confidence found also in veneration
of native saints and the writing of history, which looked
back to the Golden Age of the Canmore dynasty (1058-1286),
to the beginnings of the Scottish church, and, ultimately, to the
belief that the Scots were descended from the Greeks. I argue
that this indigenous Romanesque revival prepared the ground
in many important respects for the Renaissance. In the second
part, I demonstrate that Italian influence was already apparent
in the royal works of kingsJames III (1460-1488) and James IV
(1488-1513), focusing especially on Linlithgow Palace."

Closely associated with China’s growing prominence in international politics are discussions about how to understand Chinese history, and how such perspectives inform the way a stronger China may relate to the rest of the world. This article examines two narratives as cases, and considers how they fit against more careful historical scholarship. The first is the nationalist narrative dealing with Qing and Republican history, and the second is the narrative on the Chinese world order. Analyses of Chinese nationalism tend to see a more powerful China as being more assertive internationally, based in part on a belief in the need to address and overcome past wrongs. Studies of historical regional systems in Asia point to the role that a peaceful ‘Confucian’ ethos played in sustaining a stable Chinese-led order, and highlight the promise it holds for checking regional and international tensions. The two perspectives create an obvious tension when trying to understand China’s rise, which can suggest that using historical viewpoints to understand contemporary developments may be doomed to incoherence. This article argues that difficulties in applying knowledge of the past to analyses of China’s role in contemporary world politics indicate a relative inattentiveness to Chinese and Asian history. It illustrates how the nature of China’s rise may be more contingent on the external environment that it faces than popular received wisdom may indicate. The article suggests that a more extensive engagement with historical research and historiography can augment and enrich attempts to appreciate the context surrounding China’s rise.

This article focuses on the critical reception of Robert Burns from 1796 to 1828. It explores how the concept of genius influenced the perception of Burns as it was represented by critics and editors throughout the time period. Testimony of Burns’s ‘genius’ in the early nineteenth century was entirely in line with critical responses to the poet’s works beginning in 1786. This essay provides a survey of these responses, revealing a consistent pattern of critical reception of Burns and his body of work. The primary critical approach to Burns’s work involved the application of ‘genius’ theory; the continuum of critical responses demonstrates the fluid nature of this concept throughout the late eighteenth and mid nineteenth centuries. However, attention to the poet’s reception history also shows that while the concept underwent significant moderation as an aesthetic category, its association with moral failings was almost uniformly expressed by Burns’s critics. The ties between genius and biography, particularly in Burns’s case, became increasingly knotted as later commentators attempted to understand the poet’s life and works. This essay demonstrates that the process of myth-building and moralizing surrounding Burns continued unabated through the nineteenth century, particularly as critics assayed the poet’s nationalist iconicity while attempting to diminish the relevance of moral failings wrought by his ‘genius’. Burns’s fame still highlights this tension between his undeniable poetic gifts and his messy personal life, between his poetic aspirations and his complicated desires.