scholarly journals Redefining national identity by playing with classics

2005 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 379-404
Author(s):  
Luule Epner
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
The Core ◽  
Long Run ◽  
National Values ◽  
Theatrical Play ◽  
Theatrical Representations ◽  
Textual Strategies

National identities are to a great extent based on common mythical stories (re)produced by literature and arts; in the long run, the core texts of literature themselves start to function as cultural myths. Performing classical works theatre relates them to the changing social context and thus actualises their meaning. Theatrical representations of national characters and mythical stories participate in reinforcing or redefining national identity. In independent Estonia of the 1990s–2000s the need for reconsidering national values and myths that served to consolidate society in the Soviet period, has become evident. The article focuses on theatrical productions in the turn of the century, which are based on active rewriting of well-known Estonian classics (August Kitzberg, Oskar Luts, and the national epic Kalevipoeg). The article tries to answer two questions: how ingredients of national identity (for instance, the relation to the Other) are displayed and (de)constructed by adapting or rewriting of above-mentioned classics; how textual strategies aimed at semantic transformations are motivated and shaped by the principle of self-reflexive theatrical play.

Multiculturalism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nasar Meer
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Race Relations ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Prominent Feature ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
The Core ◽  
National Question ◽  
Multicultural Citizenship ◽  
Future Status

The purpose of this chapter is to locate the discussion about Muslims in Scotland in relation to questions of national identity and multicultural citizenship. While the former has certainly been a prominent feature of public and policy debate, the latter has largely been overshadowed by constitutional questions raised by devolution and the referenda on independence. This means that, while we have undoubtedly progressed since MacEwen (1980) characterised the treatment of ‘race-relations’ in Scotland as a matter either of ‘ignorance or apathy’, the issue of where ethnic, racial and religious minorities rest in the contemporary landscape remains unsettled. One of the core arguments of this chapter is that these issues are all interrelated, and that the present and future status of Muslims in Scotland is tied up with wider debates about the ‘national question’. Hitherto, however, study of national identity in Scotland has often (though not always) been discussed in relation to the national identities of England, Wales and Britain as a whole.

Sexual Affronts and Racial Frontiers: European Identities and the Cultural Politics of Exclusions in Colonial Southeast Asia

1992 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 514-551 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Stoler
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Cultural Competence ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Cultural Politics ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Sexual Morality ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Liberal Policy

This essay is concerned with the construction of colonial categories and national identities and with those people who ambiguously straddled, crossed, and threatened these imperial divides.1 It begins with a story about métissage (interracial unions) and the sorts of progeny to which it gave rise (referred to as métis, mixed bloods) in French Indochina at the turn of the century. It is a story with multiple versions about people whose cultural sensibilities, physical being, and political sentiments called into question the distinctions of difference which maintained the neat boundaries of colonial rule. Its plot and resolution defy the treatment of European nationalist impulses and colonial racist policies as discrete projects, since here it was in the conflation of racial category, sexual morality, cultural competence and national identity that the case was contested and politically charged. In a broader sense, it allows me to address one of the tensions of empire which this essay only begins to sketch: the relationship between the discourses of inclusion, humanitarianism, and equality which informed liberal policy at the turn of the century in colonial Southeast Asia and the exclusionary, discriminatory practices which were reactive to, coexistent with, and perhaps inherent in liberalism itself.2

Peopling the Portholes: National Identity and Maritime Museums in the U.S. and U.K.

2004 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 23-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phyllis Leffler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Social History ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Focal Points ◽  
National Values ◽  
The U.S

This research essay explores both the substance and style of exhibits at maritime museums in Britain and the United States. The museums selected reflect how social history concerns affect representations of national identities and national values on both sides of the Atlantic. Issues of social inclusion and diversity prevail, but are treated in substantially different ways in Britain and the U.S. Representations of life at sea, relocation and travel, and commerce provide focal points for exploring these differences. Issues of class, race, loss and guilt, social mobility, and national identity are woven into the analysis.

scholarly journals Ethnicity, National Identity and the State: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 757-779 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elliott Green
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
The State ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Politics ◽  
The Core ◽  
National Identification ◽  
Sub Saharan

The process by which people transfer their allegiance from ethnic to national identities is highly topical yet somewhat opaque. This article argues that one of the key determinants of national identification is membership in a ‘core’ ethnic group, or Staatsvolk, and whether or not that group is in power. It uses the example of Uganda as well as Afrobarometer data to show that, when the core ethnic group is in power (as measured by the ethnic identity of the president), members of this group identify more with the nation, but when this group is out of power members identify more with their ethnic group. This finding has important implications for the study of nationalism, ethnicity and African politics.

scholarly journals Philosophical and cultural perspectives of identities of Eastern Ukraine (on the material of the Kharkiv Meetdoc-2018 film festival)

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Film Festival ◽  
Philosophical Foundations ◽  
Cultural Perspectives ◽  
National Trauma ◽  
National Values ◽  
Hybrid War ◽  
Global World

It is proved that the cultural perspectives of Eastern Ukraine's identities are of particular importance in the context of the hybrid war and the fact that national identities are the strongest foundation for state-building and the creation of contemporary national art. It is argued that art serves as a means of identifying the identities of Eastern Ukraine, as well as the best means of social and cultural communication, a way of developing a national identity in a global world. The philosophical foundations of national identities and national trauma were studied by E. Said, M. Pavlyshyn, K. Karut, G. Grabovich, O. Hnatyuk, O. Tytar, K. Hübner. The philosophical and cultural perspectives of Eastern Ukraine's identities are analyzed on the example of films and materials of the Kharkiv MeetDoc-2018 film festival, which states that national identity determines contemporary art and the life of a nation, where the life of each person is integrated into the unity of national existence. National identity is a complex multicomponent phenomenon, but the fact of national identity remains decisive. National cinema, forming a nation and defending national values, the national dignity of the entire nation, remains a significant factor in modern information and socio-cultural policies. Cinematography can act as a translator of proper ethical behavior, as the mass culture requires the translation and retransmission of such samples of heroism and virtues. It is proved that spiritual victory is the best means of unity and identity. Analyzed as modern cinema provides high samples of sacrifice, heroism, national drama, tragedy and their overcoming in a grand act. Cinematographic art is studied as a means of imitation and promotion of identity in mass culture, a new means of sensitivity and sincerity, a culture of presence.

THE CORE AND PERIPHERY OF THE CURRENT CULTURE OF ARTISTIC CREATION ABOUT THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR IN THE STUDENTS’ VIEWS

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 130-149
Author(s):  
Elena N. NARKHOVA ◽  
Dmitry Yu. NARKHOV
Keyword(s):  
Historical Memory ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Student Culture ◽  
The Core ◽  
Musical Works ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
History Of ◽  
Current Student ◽  
Historical Periods

This article analyzes the degree of demand for works of art (films and television films and series, literary and musical works, works of monumental art) associated with the history of the Great Patriotic War among contemporary students. This research is based on the combination of two theories, which study the dynamics and statics of culture in the society — the theory of the nucleus and periphery by Yu. M. Lotman and the theory of actual culture by L. N. Kogan. The four waves of research (2005, 2010, 2015, 2020) by the Russian Society of Socio¬logists (ROS) have revealed a series of works in various genres on this topic in the core structure and on the periphery of the current student culture; this has also allowed tracing the dynamics of demand and the “movement” of these works in the sociocultural space. The authors introduce the concept of the archetype of the echo of war. The high student recognition of works of all historical periods (from wartime to the present day) is shown. A significant complex of works has been identified, forming two contours of the periphery. Attention is drawn to the artistic work of contemporary students as a way to preserve the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War. This article explains the necessity of preserving the layer of national culture in order to reproduce the national identity in the conditions of informational and ideological pluralism of the post-Soviet period. The authors note the differentiation of youth due to the conditions and specifics of socialization in the polysemantic sociocultural space.

scholarly journals ‘A Most Select Gathering’. Mexican National Pilgrimages to Rome during the Papacy of Leo XIII

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 475
Author(s):  
Francisco Javier Ramón Solans
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Global Dimension ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Holy See

The objective of this article is to analyse Mexican national pilgrimages to Rome that took place during the pontificate of Leo XIII (1878–1903). These pilgrimages occurred in the context of a global Catholic mobilisation in support of the papacy, during the so-called Roman Question. This paper’s analysis of these pilgrimages draws from historiography about national pilgrimages, as well as studies on Catholic mobilisation in support of the pope in the second half of the nineteenth century. It is fundamentally based on primary sources of an official nature, such as reports and other printed documents produced on the occasion of the pilgrimage. The study’s primary conclusion is that national pilgrimages to Rome had a polysemic character since they brought together various religious and national identities. The pilgrimages contributed simultaneously to reinforcing the link between Catholicism and Mexican national identity and the global dimension of Catholicism and allegiance to the Holy See.

scholarly journals The Role of Religious Fundamentalism in the Intersection of National and Religious Identities

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susilo Wibisono ◽  
Winnifred Louis ◽  
Jolanda Jetten
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Religious Fundamentalism ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Religious Identification ◽  
National Identification ◽  
The Way

Indonesia has seen recent expansions of fundamentalist movements mobilising members in support a change to the current constitution. Against this background, two studies were conducted. In Study 1, we explored the intersection of religious and national identity among Indonesian Muslims quantitatively, and in Study 2, we qualitatively examined religious and national identification among members of moderate and fundamentalist religious organisations. Specifically, Study 1 (N= 178) assessed whether the association of religious and national identity was moderated by religious fundamentalism. Results showed that strength of religious identification was positively associated with strength of national identification for both those high and low in fundamentalism. Using structured interviews and focus group discussions, Study 2 (N =35) examined the way that self-alignment with religious and national groups develops among activists of religious movements in Indonesia. We found that while more fundamentalist activists attached greater importance to their religious identity than to any other identity (e.g., national and ethnic), more moderate activists represented their religious and national identities as more integrated and compatible. We conclude that for Indonesian Muslims higher in religious fundamentalism, religious and national identities appear to be less integrated and this is consequential for the way in which collective agendas are pursued.

Rag Doll Nations and the Politics of Differentiation on Arbitrary Borders: Karelia and Moldova*

2004 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 457-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Lawrence Schrad
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
The State ◽  
Ethnic Community ◽  
National Identities ◽  
The Other ◽  
Interesting Aspect ◽  
Territorial Boundaries ◽  
Shed Light

“Tell a man today to go and build a state,” Samuel Finer once stated, “and he will try to establish a definite and defensible boundary and compel those who live inside it to obey him.” While at best an oversimplification, Finer's insight illuminates an interesting aspect of state-society relations. Who is it that builds the state? How and where do they establish territorial boundaries, and how are those who live within that territory compelled to obey? Generally speaking, these are the questions that will be addressed here. Of more immediate concern is the fate of peoples located in regions where arbitrary land boundaries fall. Are they made loyal to the state through coercion or by their own compulsions? More importantly, how are their identities shaped by the efforts of the state to differentiate them from their compatriots on the other side of the borders? How is the shift from ethnic to national identities undertaken? A parallel elaboration of the national histories of the populations of Karelia and Moldova will shed light on these questions. The histories of each group are marked by a myriad of attempts to differentiate the identity of each ethnic community from their compatriots beyond the state's borders. The results of such overt, state-initiated efforts to differentiate borderland populations by encouraging a national identity at the expense of the ethnic, has ranged from the mundane to the tragic—from uneventful assimilation to persecution and even genocide. As an illustration of the range of possibilities and processes, I maintain that the tragedies of Karelia and Moldova are not exceptional, but rather are a consequence of their geographical straddling of arbitrary borders, and the need for the state to promote a distinctive national identity for these populations to differentiate them socially from their compatriots beyond the frontier.

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