Full Description
Interest in the study of national identity as a collective phenomenon is a growing concern among the social and political sciences. This book addresses the scholarly interest in examining the origins of ideologies and social practices that give historical meaning, cohesion and uniqueness to modern national communities. It focuses on the various routes taken towards the construction of cultural authenticity as an inspirational purpose of nation-building and reveals the diversity of the themes, practices and symbols used to encourage self-identification and communality. Among the techniques explored are the dramatization of suffering and tragedy, the exaltation of heroes and deeds, the evocation of landscape, nature and the arts and the delimitation of collective values to be pursued during reconstruction in post-war periods.
Contents
Contents: Introduction: The study of national identity, Natividad Gutiérrez. Dimensions of National Identity: Interpretations of national identity, Anthony D. Smith; Theories of national personality revisited: Anglo-American models and French conceptions, Philippe Claret; National identity and modernity, Montserrat Guibernau. Symbolizing the Nation: Forging the authentic nation: Alpine landscape and Swiss national identity, Oliver Zimmer; Folk culture and the construction of European national identities between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, Anne-Marie Thiese and Catherine Bertho-Lavenir; The shaping of a nation: Catalan history and historicity in Post-Franco Spain, Yolaine Cultiaux. Teaching National Identity: Recreating the French nation: the teaching of history at the École Libre des Sciences Politiques at the end of the nineteenth century, Corinne Delmas; National identity construction and the teacher's unions of the Germanys and Japan, 1945-1955, Julian Dierkes; Hindu nationalism and the social welfare strategy, Christophe Jaffrelot. Disrupted National Identities: Nationalism and the politics of national identities in Latin America: gender, power and racism, Sallie Westwood; The difficult stabilization of Turkish national identity, Gérard Groc; Between mimesis and rebellion: the vicissitudes of Romanian nationalism, Catherine Durandin. Conclusion: Culture and national identity, Alain Dieckhoff.
