The sausage that awakened a nation: the Carniolan sausage in the Slovenian national imagination, 1849–1918

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article is based on the argument that the Carniolan sausage (kranjska klobasa) played an important role in the formation and development of Slovenian national awareness in the period between the Spring of Nations and the end of World War I. The Carniolan sausage was an integral part of a unified field of exchanges which enabled the collective recognition of the members of the nation. The article then discusses its place in ‘banal nationalism’ – the daily nationalism that slips from our attention and daily reminds people of their nationality. As a banal national symbol, highlighting national differences and significance, the Carniolan sausage was a constant reminder of the nation. In the last part, the article analyses its role in ‘nationalism from below’, or everyday nationhood – the reproduction of nationhood by ordinary people in everyday life. The Carniolan sausage demonstrates that nationalism is not merely the result of a political programme or ideology, but primarily a network or collection of people, objects, practices, places, institutions, ideologies, technologies, ideas, symbols etc. which define the subjectivity of the people, and form their actions and imagination.