Nationalism and Shakespeare's History Plays

Abstract

Political scientists recently insist that nationalism is an invented concept which precedes nation. Benedict Anderson, for example, termed a nation “an imagined community,” that is not an entity but a product of imagination. Based on this political theory this essay examines Richard II and Henry V in the main as a case study. Bolingbroke offers himself as a true-born Englishman making his national identity inalienable and shifts the sovereign power from king the person to the nation itself, espousing the idea of the commonwealth whose members share duties and rights in reciprocal terms. In the imagined communities, Anderson argues, people are viewed equal regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation. This notion is employed by Henry V in his famous speech preceding the battle of Agincourt, which serves as a rhetorical device to make his soldiers united as a nation. A modern nation is further established through self-sacrificing love among the community members. Ignited by their erotic longing for a form of completeness human beings are willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of greater purpose. As a king Henry V successfully inspires this human emotion in such a way that his people dedicate their lives to the cause of the war, one of the most important national projects. As for the community membership a modern nation presupposes individuals who are free in their relationship and also share duties and rights for the community in reciprocal terms. The nation does, however, exclude people who are considered detrimental to security and order of the community. They are represented by Eastcheap people, such as Falstaff, Nim, Bardolph and Madam Quickly. Nationalism is one of the most controversial issues in globalization today. Prevailing individualism, the emerging notion of transnationalism, and influences of Postmodernism have weakened the ground of the nationalism. Against this trend, however, Western European nations, including England, have recently declared the return of nationalism announcing the failure of multi-cultural policy they had adopted so far. In this respect, a historical study of nationalism and Shakespeare’s history plays provides a space to re-examine today’s issues of nationalism in the diachronic perspective, from the birth of the first modern nation until the present day.