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POLITICS OF NATIONALISM

5. IMAGES OF THE PAST
AND 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 PAST
WESTERN
AND
EASTERN
EUROPE,
1911
“nationstates”
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 PACKAGE
•
•

•
•

TEACHING 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 PACKAGE
TEACHING 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 HISTORY
WHAT 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 HISTORY

•
•
•
•

AGE OF NATIONAL STRUGGLE
Long 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

IRISH
REPUBLICAN
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
IRELAND
“The national territory consists of the
whole island of Ireland, its islands and
the territorial seas” (Constitution, 1937,
art. 2)
Catholic / nationalist / “Irish” Ireland


HUNGARY
Maximimalist
version of “historic
Hungary”
“Ethnic”
Hungary, 1910


LITHUANIA
Maximimalist version of
“historic Lithuania”
“Ethnic” Lithuania, 1897


ISRAEL
“Historic Israel—the Holy
Land” (Goodnews Christian
Ministry)
Kingdom of David
(Israeli Foreign Ministry)
“Ethnic” Israel, 1947


THE END …

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