Cultural Nationalism and the Formulation of the Political: Reflections on the Jewish National Movement in the Works of D. Frishman and M. J. Berdichevski

Abstract

Regarding culture as the very basis of the concept of a nation, this article reflects on cultural nationalism's attitude towards the idea of a nation-state and national-political life. I will suggest that cultural nationalism is a concept that inevitably invokes the aspiration that art will overcome political life, undermining its role to provide the soon-to-be citizens with an adequate arena on which to contest their ethics. Thus, cultural nationalism might prevent politics from being involved in questions of identity and may imply some questionable consequences regarding democratic values such as individual autonomy. Hence, cultural nationalism keeps open the option to contradict its own intrinsic postulation that aims for self-sovereignty. This claim will be demonstrated with the case study of the Jewish national movement and more specifically through the examination of the writings of two important literary personae within it: David Frishman and Micha Joseph Berdichevski.