Lecture 7

                                      History and nationalism

                                         Inventing the past

*      With the rise of the national states new symbols emerge (flags, anthems, emblems of the
nation) & historical continuity needs to be invented:

*      Ranger & Hobsbawm "invented traditions":

*      Primary education

*      Invention of public ceremonies

*      Mass production of public monuments

                                        Invented traditions:
                                      (according to Hobsbawm)

*      a set of practices, normally governed by overtly or tacitly accepted rules and of a ritual or
symbolic nature, which seek to inculcate certain values and norms of behaviour by repetition, which
automatically implies continuity with the past. In fact, where possible, they normally attempt to
establish continuity with a suitable historic past

*      responses to novel situations which take the form of reference to old situations, or which
establish their own past by quasi-obligatory repetition

                                          National rituals

*      Secular rituals, N, national identity

*      Public rituals (ceremonies) & everyday ritualised activities

*      Billig: banal N

*      The need to establish some kind of illusory homogeneity to present itslef as distinct entity
and in order to be able to `demand' loyalty whenever necessary

                                    National rituals and symbols

*      establish and revitalise, reinforce and recreate the feeling of shared identity among people

*      both public ceremonials and everyday-life routines: a set of interrelated banal rituals and
routines which people are entirely oblivious of most of the time (cf. Billig)

*      every state needs ritualised remembering which occurs on special occasions in the form of
public ceremonials + on daily basis, this reproduction of a nation as a nation and its `citizenry as
nationals' has to take place as well



                                          National symbols

*      Emblems

*      Hymns

*      Festivals

*      Customs

*      Linguistic codes

*      Sacred places etc.

                                  Myth (from `Myths & Nationhood')

*      A myth is one of the ways in which communities establish and determine the foundations of
their own being, their own systems of morality and values. In this sense ... myth is a set of
beliefs, usually put forth as a narrative, held by a community about itself. ... Myth is about
perceptions rather than historically validated truths

                                           National myths
                                   (taxonomy by George Schöpflin)

*      Myths of territory

*      Myths of redemption and suffering

*      Myths of unjust treatment

*      Myths of election

*      Myths of military valour (bravery)

*      Myths of rebirth and renewal

*      Myths of foundation

*      Myths of ethnogenesis and antiquity

*      Myths of kinship and shared descent

                                      Shared national memories

*      Memories of liberation, migration, the golden age(s), of victories/defeats, of heroes,
saints...

*      Myths of descent, together with historical memories and common culture, are necessary for any
nation to form a community. For this reason, a nation has to create these elements in order to
establish itself as different from its neighbours (Anthony Smith)

                                        Next week's readings

*       Holmes, Leslie (1997): Post-communism: An Introduction

*       Frentzel-Zagorska, Janina (ed.) (1993): From a One-Party State to Democracy: Transition in
Eastern Europe

*       Minkenberg, Michael (2002): "The Radical Right in Postsocialist Central and Eastern Europe:
Comparative Observations and Interpretations" East European Politics and Societies Vol. 16, No. 2,
pp. 335-362

*       Pajnik, Mojca (ed.) (2002): Xenophobia and Post-Socialism

*       Ramet, Sabrina P. (ed.) (1999): The Radical Right in Central and Eastern Europe since 1989

*       Maga¹, Branka (1993): The Destruction of Yugoslavia: Tracking the Break-up 1980-92

*       Nedelsky, Nadya (2003): "Civic Nationhood and the Challenges of Minority Inclusion: The Case
of the Post-communist Czech Republic" Ethnicities Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 85-114.

*       Ramet, Sabrina Petra (1996): Balkan Babel: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia from the Death
of Tito to Ethnic War