Discourses Of National Identity Research Articles

Ambiguity as deliberate strategy: the ‘de-politicized’ discourse of national identity in the Taiwanese citizenship curriculum

This article aims to investigate how the discourse on national identity is approached in the new Taiwanese citizenship curriculum. The differing opinions on Taiwan’s relationship with China and the constant threat from this rising superpower have deterred the explicit promotion of either a Taiwanese or Chinese identity. The new curriculum follows a strategy of ‘intentional ambiguity’, where neither identity is mentioned. In this ‘polysemous’ form, the curriculum has been criticized for staying silent on the question of cultivating a national identity. However, the curriculum developers interviewed for this paper suggested that parents and pupils who examine the new curriculum can find support for whichever national identity they favor since it is designed in such an inclusive manner. They can then simultaneously reflect on the multiple, divergent or competing meanings behind the ‘polysemous texts’ and this ‘hermeneutic’ process of reasoning can then facilitate the choice of national identity with maximum acceptance.

The visibility of divergence: Vicke Lindstrand – Swedishness, Scandinavianness and the “other”

SummaryDuring discussion of national identity, stereotypical characteristics inevitably emerge. In applied arts and design, the character or appearance of objects is commonly understood to express certain notions of national identity, yet this concept of a national “style” is inherently problematic. The Nordic region is arguably one of the most oft-cited exponents of national and regional design identity, or style, by way of the mid-twentieth-century marketing of Swedish and Scandinavian design. Stylistic stereotypes abound in mid-twentieth-century discourses on both Swedish and Scandinavian design and, indeed, ideas of Swedishness and Scandinavianness became somewhat homogenous and apparently resilient to divergent, non-Scandinavian influences. This paper discusses the construction of the narrative of modern Swedish Design and Scandinavian Design identity by way of an examination of divergent influences in the work of the Swedish artist and designer Viktor Emmanuel (Vicke) Lindstrand (1904–1983). The aim is to readdress Lindstrand's position in twentieth-century design history by problematising the historically unbalanced reading of his work as an artist and designer, constrained as it was by the construction of national and regional design identities and their mediation in discourse [see also the essay by Mark Ian Jones, “Vicke Lindstrand after Orrefors – In the Shadow of Streamlined Perfection”, in Ann-Christine Fogelberg (ed.), DESIGN: Vicke Lindstrand (1904–1983) Glas, keramik, textil, måleri och skulptur, Uppsala, 2013, pp. 4–23; Mark Ian Jones, On the Periphery. An Examination of Mid-twentieth Swedish Design and the Reception of Vicke Lindstrand, Sydney, 2011]. My position is that of a non-Swede, an outsider with a different vantage point, examining English language discourse of Swedish origin that was, in turn, intended for outsiders. As such, this paper considers how key mid-twentieth-century English language discourses and rhetoric, manifest in exhibitions and texts, represented Swedish and later Scandinavian design. Lindstrand is positioned as an exemplar and his work is utilised to illustrate and underscore the arguments proposed by this paper.

From Registers to Repertoires of Identification in National Identity Discourses: A Comparative Study of Nationally Mixed People in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom

AbstractAs nationally mixed people have parents born in different countries, they can potentially identify with multiple national reference groups, allowing the researcher to study national identification processes. The analysis of approximately one hundred people of nationally mixed background living in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom highlights different registers of identification. There are important differences in how nationally mixed people articulate them, which leads to the identification of different national repertoires of identification. In France, a strong French national identity was emphasized, whereas German national identity seems more fragile because it depends mainly on cultural socialization. In the United Kingdom, non‐national identities are developed in a context where the national community is not clearly defined, while ethnicity is publicly recognized. The register and repertoire of identification concepts thus allow the researcher to analyse identity discourses and then explain national differences through international comparison.

Genius in France: An Idea and its Uses

Genius, as the Introduction to this rich and engaging account usefully outlines, is a longstanding but frequently contested object of study. Its multiple etymology, its employment to refer to both attribute and individual, and the prevailing sense that it is somehow a self-evident quality, all contribute to the difficulty writers have in defining the term. Ann Jefferson quite explicitly makes no attempt to provide any such definition, or to construct any coherent theory of genius. Rather, she examines the uses to which the notion has been put across three centuries of French culture, in particular with reference to the concepts to which it has been opposed. These ‘others’ include talent, learning, madness, imposture, and taste, but the most consistent ‘other’ is the observer: the third party who is required to recognize, determine, comment upon, or even constrain genius. This book sets out to define the specific contribution of French thinkers to the genius debate, a contribution Jefferson suggests has traditionally been marginalized. The precise linguistic, literary, and sociocultural analysis with which she supports this wide-ranging exploration of intellectual history provides compelling evidence for her contention that there is value in taking into account the particular language and cultural tradition within which ideas are expressed. The study moves through a series of apparently unrelated contexts in which genius has been discussed: from eighteenth-century aesthetic philosophy, through the nineteenth-century quest for national identity, medical attempts to quantify and pathologize intellect, and the media fascination with child prodigies, to twentieth-century literary theory. Jefferson makes a virtue of what she terms this ‘discontinuity’, suggesting that it is precisely the continued freshness of genius that makes it attractive as an object of debate. Yet there are also several themes that link these disparate case studies. Time and again we encounter genius as the originality of perception that is necessary to human progress. The relationship between individual and collective genius appears in both discussions of national identity and considerations of an international, atemporal dynasty of genius. Genius as a performance relates precocious children to fraudulent adults, and plays a part in analyses of the qualities required to recognize genius in others. And there is a persistent fascination with how far genius resides in the biography or biology of an individual. Most striking of all is how frequently discussions of genius are used to position their author, or say something about the discipline within which that discussion is taking place. Hugo ostentatiously leaves a space for himself in his presentation of national genius; doctors define the objective, progressive logic of their discipline with respect to the uncontrollable spontaneity of genius/madness; and Sartre makes parallels between his own childhood and that of the prodigy that he describes. Jefferson concludes on the impossibility of ever stating precisely what genius is, but this study — which begins and ends with the idea of thinking with rather than about genius — provides more than ample proof of just how productive this impossibility can be, for scholars in so many fields.

One ring to rule them all: Master discourses of enlightenment—and racism—from colonial to contemporary New Zealand

AbstractWe interrogated historical continuity and change in discourses of enlightenment and racism through the analysis of 160 years of New Zealand Speeches from the Throne (1854–2014, 163 speeches). Enlightenment discourses of benevolence and perfectibility were prevalent in all periods, much more so than racism. ‘Old‐fashioned’ racism took the form of an assumed civilizational superiority (including accusations of ‘barbarism’) during colonization, with ‘modern’ racism taking forms like blaming Māori for not ‘productively’ using the land. Both declined to almost zero by the 20th century, undermining the idea of ‘old‐fashioned’ versus ‘modern’ racism. Utilitarian discourses peaked in the late 19th to early 20th centuries as justification for Māori land alienation. ‘Master discourses of enlightenment’ consisted of a central core of social representations that changed at the periphery, with a gradual expansion of symbolic inclusion of Māori in discourses of national identity to the point where biculturalism is the dominant discourse for elites today.

Architecture-building: mobilising the lessons of the Survey Popular Architecture in Portugal

Within the history of Portuguese architecture, a survey conducted on vernacular dwellings in the mid-1950s has a significant place. This article examines how this survey has been remembered and enhanced, mobilised and updated ever since, playing a part in the empowerment of architecture as a discipline, as a profession, and as a matter of culture in Portugal. The main argument is that the collective and individual recollection of the survey has extolled the aesthetic and ethical lessons it provided for architects’ practice, activating the symbolic capital of an expression of culture long rooted in Portuguese discourses of national identity. This politics of memory has contributed to the recognition of Portuguese architects’ authority, autonomy and identity as a profession.

From Victor Hugo to Fedor Dostoevskii: 19th-Century Perceptions of Architecture as Historical Text

The article examines the 19th-century European perception of architecture – and architectural style – as an expression of history and culture that can only be fully explicated through a verbal, literary text. This concept was particularly active in discussions of national identity. Architecture was both reflective on a national culture and at the same time called upon to further reflect and express that culture. On this basis arose critical interpretations of eclectic, historicist architectural styles. The article discusses the origins of this historicist concept in Victor Hugo’s novel Notre Dame de Paris and its elaboration in the work of Nikolai Gogol, Fedor Dostoevsky and the Marquis de Custine.

National Identity Discourses in Visual Culture and Art Education

National Identity Discourses in Visual Culture and Art Education

East and West in Modern Hungarian Politics

More than any other politician in current Hungarian politics, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán refers to “east” and “west” in his public addresses as symbols of antithetical political cultures and cultural value systems. Of course, he is by no means the first Hungarian statesman to do so. From the Middle Ages, references to the Asian origins of the nation were mobilized by chroniclers and statesmen to characterize the national character and Hungary’s place in the European Christian political community. During the Enlightenment, the embracing of a perceived cultural hierarchy between west and east entered the Hungarian public discourse, and from the Reform Era the two intellectual streams shaped modern Hungarian identity discourse equally. This paper describes the national identity discourse that emphasizes the Asian origins of the nation through the lens of what I call “self-Orientalism.” Whereas Orbán’s political addresses can be viewed as a continuation of the self-Orientalizing language, the examination of the ways in which he breaks from the tradition of self-Orientalism teaches even more important lessons about the viability of the reference to the east-west dichotomy in the global political arena.

Claiming the nation for the people: the dynamics of representation in German public discourse about immigrant integration

AbstractAgainst the backdrop of the current trend to criticise elite‐centred approaches to the study of nationalism, this article sheds light on ways in which elite and popular notions of nationhood are mediated. Thus, public discourse on national identity is explored as a discourse that ordinary people can influence and in which elites make claims to represent the people. To illustrate the dynamics of representative claim‐making and reception, the article uses a case study from German public discourse; the debate about Thilo Sarrazin's 2010 book Germany Does Away With Itself. It finds that, although Sarrazin clearly breaches well‐established rules in national identity discourse, his ideas gain traction from the moment he becomes accepted as representing ordinary Germans. The findings are discussed against the backdrop of the history of German national identity discourse and anti‐essentialist approaches treating nationhood as a political claim.

For and against the Mediterranean

Since the landmark intervention of Edward Said, the “Orient” has been widely rejected as a repository of European projections of alterity, and the Mediterranean is variously embraced as a promising framework for cross-cultural relations and transnational scholarship and rejected for its intellectual baggage and propensity to generate “Mediterraneanism.” In the francophone context, the Mediterranean has been a significant yet contentious intellectual category since the waning days of empire. Since the 1980s, with the decline of French power in Europe, the idea of a Mediterranean sphere of influence has held renewed attraction. Economic and political initiatives and educational and cultural projects have promoted transnational exchanges under the auspices of Mediterranean unity. Correspondingly, several Middle Eastern and North African scholars and writers have embraced the Mediterranean as an alternative to monolithic discourses of national, linguistic, and religious identity. Dobie’s essay situates the unique position of the Mediterranean in francophone intellectual culture and critical discourse in the context of colonial and postcolonial history.

Schooling the gaze: Industry and nation-building in Luxembourgish landscape-writing, 1900–1940

This paper investigates the role of industry in the invention of a national landscape in Luxembourg between 1900 and 1940. Luxembourg is a significant case study when it comes to the construction of national identity, because it did not gain its independence (1890) through revolution but was attributed the status of nationhood by the decision of the major European political powers. The period under investigation is also characterized by immense industrial expansion: in the course of a few decades, Luxembourg moved from being a rural state to being a major economic power. Focusing on landscape-writing addressed to a native audience, this paper examines the nexus of the economy, the arts and politics, arguing that writers integrated representations of industrial processes into the discourse of national identity in order to assert Luxembourg’s competence and ‘right to life’.

The underside of the undershirt: Australian masculine identity and representations of the undershirt in the ‘Chesty Bond’ comic-strip advertisements

Abstract This article considers the male undershirt within discourses of distinctive Australian national dress styles, bush wear and swimwear. Through the case study of Chesty Bonds advertisements, this article will argue that the undershirt became a symbol of strength, virility, heroicism and mateship during the 1940s and 1950s. In aligning the Chesty Bond character with iconic Australian heroic types the surf lifesaver and the bushman advertisers were able to draw on mythologies of masculine cultural identity to promote the undershirt as a staple of the hegemonic male wardrobe. Through an analysis of the Chesty Bond comic-strip advertisements, I will argue that the athletic undershirt contributed to discourses of national identity in which the white male was dominant, and women and non-Anglo-Celtic men were marginalized, seen as being outside the Australian archetype.

Nature and Identity in the Construction of the Romanian Concept of Nation

Abstract In this article I explore the role played by nature in the construction of the discourse of Romanian national identity. What was the perceived relation between the human community and the natural realm? How was the natural landscape transformed into a constitutive part of the national discourse? Could nature be seen as an essential identity marker for Romanian nationhood, thus shaping a form of Romanian exceptionalism? What form does this exceptionalist view take in the Romanian case? I highlight how the concept of an imagined national community was developed by the Romanian political and intellectual elite of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the role played by nature in the shaping of this discourse of identity.

Eco‐National Discourse and the Case of the Finnhorse

AbstractIn eco‐national discourses, animals and other nonhumans are represented as national through their position as native breeds or species. In this article, we investigate the definition of the animal as a representative of a ‘national breed’ and its support to nation‐building. This article is a case‐study of the contemporary representation of the Finnhorse as a ‘national breed’ in the context of Finnish discourses of national identity. The materials analysed consist of documents and reports seeking to develop and ‘rebrand’ the Finnhorse, as well as the representation of the breed in contemporary Finnish popular music and culture. The materials are analysed using discourse analysis. According to the study, nationality is a central part of the representation of the Finnhorse, and nature is an essential element in defining the animal as native, therefore claiming its nationality to be natural. The Finnhorse is often also portrayed in the context of nostalgia. In the new contexts of contemporary equine activities, the horse is also provided with a role in rural development.

Teachers' Perceptions of National Identity in the English and Taiwanese Citizenship Curricula: Civic or Ethnic Nationalism?

This article examines and compares the hotly debated issue of national identity in the Taiwanese and English citizenship curricula and investigates the extent to which schoolteachers' perceptions fall in line with the written curriculum. The author describes the background to the evolution of national identity in each country. Following this preliminary understanding, the theory of civic-ethnic nationalism is used as the criterion to examine the nature of nationalism underlying the curriculum. The Taiwanese citizenship curriculum with its 60-year long history has transformed from being a tool for the promotion of an ‘imagined’ Chinese national identity to a more Taiwan-oriented programme. With fewer disagreements, ‘Britishness’, as a consensual identity constructed from a civic construct, creates an inclusive umbrella to accommodate citizens with different ethnic, cultural, and religious identities. However, English citizenship education teachers question whether it has a robust-enough and deep-enough magnet to engage every citizen with varying backgrounds and further enhance social consolidation. On the other hand, this umbrella-type national identity seems to provide a valid solution for the Taiwanese citizenship curriculum designers to heal the long-lasting tensions caused by the ‘Taiwanese-Chinese identity’ divide. On closer examination, the Taiwanese curriculum chooses to sidestep this contentious issue and is therefore strongly criticised by the school teachers interviewed here. This research attempts to demonstrate the strengths and limitations of each curriculum's discourses of national identity and suggest what each may learn from each other.

Identity and Deference:A Border Within15 Years On

This lecture is a reconsideration of the arguments of A Border Within (1997) in the light of the “Harper Era” that emerged after its publication. The hypothesis was that English-Canadian culture contained the possibility of addressing the philosophical issue of identity and difference in a distinct fashion. It proceeded bottom-up by taking the discourses of national identity, multiculturalism, and environmentalism on their own terms. My critics in discourses of both multiculturalism and ecological thought have brought to my attention issues that were not dealt with sufficiently in the text. In each case the core issue is the tendency within the field of social power to group differences around an organizing centre that I called a “system” and that critics usually articulate through reference to post-structuralist authors. In one respect, the neo-liberal global context represented by the “Harper era” does require revision of the argument. It has become clear that any national project itself is fundamentally situated within a global economy and culture. So, the indecision has been decided by history: one can no longer see the nation state—or even the multinational state—as the container for all pertinent social projects.

Times of Crisis and Seeds of New Intimacies on a North Aegean Island: Activism, Alternative Exchange Networks, and Re‐Imagined Communities

Cultural intimacy, that ‘fellowship of the flawed’ (Byrne 2011; Herzfeld 1997, 2005, 2009), elucidates a framework for the analysis of how hegemonic discourses of national identity effectively coerce, or fail to coerce, citizens. Originally emerging from Greek ethnographic contexts, this framework focused the anthropological lens not on publically performed consensus, but on silent – or silenced – dissent vis-a-vis hegemonic national discourse about one, glorified, ‘Greek Past’ and the behaviours and attitudes prescribed for those who claim it as their ‘National Heritage’ in the present. Denoting continuity of descent from that singular past, heritage dominates national discourse in Modern Greece (e.g. Damaskos and

O muro invisível: a nacionalidade como discurso reificado na fronteira Brasil-Bolívia

Based on ethnographic research, this article looks to understand the extent to which nationality comprises a central category in the life of residents of border regions and how and at what moments the discourse of national identity manifests as the principal factor explaining conflicts and social interactions on the frontier, acquiring efficacy and power. This discourse, which divides the border zone residents into Bolivians on one side and Brazilians on the other, is a contextual identity construction that makes explicit the power relations involved in disputes for material and immaterial goods. While there are undoubtedly social spaces of circulation, flows and exchanges on this border that extend far beyond the economy, we can observe that other borders are socially constructed that reify prejudices in the region.

Latent but Not Less Significant: The Holocaust as an Argumentative Resource in German National Identity Discourse

There seems to be a wide consensus in the academic community that the Holocaust is gradually losing significance in the German public. This development is clearly reflected in public elite discourse on national identity, where “Holocaust-centered memory” has ceased to be hegemonic. In the literature, several interpretations and reasons have been presented to explain this development. This paper contributes to the debate by arguing that the declining presence of Holocaust-centered arguments in intellectual elite discourse on national identity is due to a new consensual idea of German nationhood. Based on an event-oriented discourse analysis of more than 800 articles in opinion-leading newspapers, journals and magazines covering a period of more than twenty years, I argue that in national identity discourse, the Holocaust has never been—as is usually assumed—a blockade to displays of national identity in general, but only to a specific interpretation of the German nation as a Volk and as an exclusionist culture nation. By contrast, the idea of nationhood that dominates in the German public sphere today, the civic nation model, has never invoked Holocaust-centered counter-arguments—not even in the Historikerstreit in the 1980s. Thus, over the past three decades, the way national identity discourse has operated might have changed less than had often been assumed. The central argument of this paper is that the Holocaust has become a “latent”—but not a less consequential—argumentative resource.