National Myths Research Articles

Lot's Daughters and Naomi and Ruth: Of “Moral Love” and National Myths

ABSTRACTThis essay argues that the book of Ruth's reopening of Israel's history and national mythology functions in such a way as to redeem, as it were, the plight of the subaltern Moabite—a plight begun with the daughters of Lot in Genesis 19. A parallel is then drawn with the 1619 Project, the recent journalistic project which posits the entire historical sweep of African slavery in North America since 1619 as the defining arc of the United States' founding. As theoretical frames, the essay draws on the work of literary critic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (including her concept of “moral love”) and political philosopher Arash Abizadeh. In so doing, the essay illustrates how a “functionalist” approach to biblical ethics that balances the content of the biblical narrative with attention to how the text functions in its broader context can provide guidance for contemporary ethical application.

BOOK REVIEW: Branding Authoritarian Nations: Political Legitimation and Strategic National Myths in Military-Ruled Thailand, by Petra Alderman

BOOK REVIEW: Branding Authoritarian Nations: Political Legitimation and Strategic National Myths in Military-Ruled Thailand, by Petra Alderman

On Strategies and Effects of Cross-cultural Communication of Chinese Mythological Animated Films—With Nezha and White Snake as Examples

Animated films with Chinese mythology are endowed with the most distinctive ethnic features. With Nezha and White Snake as examples, this paper analyzes their successes in cross-cultural communication strategies in the context of globalization from the perspectives of native cultural elements, narrations on affections, integration of Western cultures, and so forth, accompanied by their predicaments explained in many aspects including cultural differences between China and the West. It has been found that based on the native myths with less global popularity, the key to the effective communication of such film types lies in the cultural similarities, as witnessed by international narrative styles and mainstream emotional values.

Digital natives in the scientific literature: A topic modeling approach

The term “digital natives” was introduced in 2001 to describe a generation that has grown up surrounded by technology and the internet. The accompanying claims of a new way of thinking among digital natives were influential in shaping educational policy. Still, they were challenged by research that found no evidence of generation-wide cognitive changes in learners. Yet, the digital natives narrative persists in popular media and the education discourse. This study set out to investigate the reasons for the persistence of the digital native myth. It analyzed the metadata from 1886 articles related to the term between 2001 and 2022 using bibliometric methods and structural topic modeling. The results show that the concept of “digital native” is still both warmly embraced and fiercely criticized by scholars mostly from western and high income countries, and the volume of research on the topic is growing. However, the results suggest that what appears as the persistence of the idea is actually evolution and complete reinvention: The way the “digital native” concept is operationalized has shifted over time through a series of (metaphorical) mutations. The concept of digital native is one (albeit a highly successful) mutation of the generational gap discourse dating back to the early 1900s. While the initial digital native literature relied on Prensky's unvalidated claims and waned upon facing empirical challenges, subsequent versions have sought more nuanced interpretations. Notably, a burgeoning third mutation now co-opts the “digital native” terminology for diverse purposes, often completely decoupled from the foundational literature and its critiques. This study explains the concept's persistence as dynamic evolution of the digital native discourse in contemporary academic and public spheres.

Czech Question as an Answer? The Problem of Unpredictability of National Myths

Abstract The field of nationalism studies has stagnated for the past three decades. What looks like a breath of fresh air is Gerárd Bouchard’s theory of national myths, offering a new perspective on the hitherto largely overlooked study of myths. But while Bouchard brings us closer to the practical utilisation of myths, his theory also implies that the process of mythification is largely unpredictable. Myths seem to emerge and disappear in a rather mysterious manner, preventing us from effectively controlling them. The story of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the first Czechoslovak president, demonstrates this problem. Masaryk originally succeeded in constructing a democratic Czechoslovak myth, but later historical developments rendered his efforts not only ineffective but also counter-productive. The culprit, however, should not be sought in Masaryk’s philosophy or actions, as some authors have suggested, but rather in the unpredictable nature of the mythification process itself.

Postcolonial History in the Service of Anticolonial Politics: Critical Historiography and National Myth in Contemporary India

The article examines the relationship between the shaping of Indian foreign policy discourse, macro-historical processes that influence the formation of Indian political elites, and the development of historical knowledge about the Indian Ocean region. Its purpose is to ascertain the factors that influenced the specific perception of India’s place in the region by Indian elites and how this perception evolved within the framework of foreign policy discourse. Additionally, the role of historians who have studied the past of the Indian Ocean is explored. The author concludes that the changes in global political discourse following the First World War played a crucial role in shaping the ideas of India’s position in the world among the elites. These elites adopted the stance that the nation-state, with its own industrial base, was the only viable option. From the early stages of independent India, its political elites, influenced by British or Anglicized upbringing and education, rejected the notion of continuity between the new Indian state and the British Raj and the possessions of the East India Company. Instead, they attempted to establish historical continuity with pre-British Indian polities. Indian and foreign historians supported them in this endeavor. The author demonstrates how India’s political elites utilized the findings of scholars to serve their own purposes, selectively adopting suitable historical narratives while discarding others. This process gradually drew the community of historians into the production of discourse. During the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, the Mughal Empire received the most attention as the last pre-British Indian polity. However, with the Bharatiya Janata Party coming into power, research on Hindu polities and personalities is now encouraged.

“Den ensomme helt mod magtens og storpolitikkens skamfulde forsømmelser”: Den individuelle projektion af en nations kamp i FN-embedsmand Povl Bang-Jensens minde

The Hungarian political and social discourse of the last decades often makes use of a national myth based on Hungarian history that focuses on a constant struggle for survival. The myth is built around the concept of the heroic Hungarians, who from time to time fight against a political and / or military preponderance. A narrative characteristic for the countries of East-Central and Eastern Europe has been created, which in its distinction between itself and the other concentrates on self-defence and victimhood, but at the same time emphasizes the nation’s superiority over the others. The image of the nation characterized by the uninterrupted struggle for survival becomes a schematic but effective tool in the political discourse. It is not a new narrative, but the actualization of the well-known, that finds appropriate events and personalities to disseminate the existing, traditional self-image. The paper attempts to demonstrate how the Danish United Nations official Povl Bang-Jensen and the role he played in the international politics after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 has been used to convey this image. Based on memories, books and documentaries my goal is to discuss how individual recall of experienced events contributed to the (re)construction of Bang-Jensen’s personality. Furthermore, I try to shed light on how intertwining memories about a historical event, scientific research and history writing points to a changed perception of the scientific facts that are no longer considered objective and independent of human consciousness or actions. They describe a reality, which is influenced by consciousness and interpreted through textual formulations. The article argues that the subjective perspective constituted in the memories about Bang-Jensen creates an almost mythologized interpretation of the Danish diplomat as a symbol of freedom and morality, as well. The article was among others inspired by works of Maurice Halbwachs, Sabine Mollers, Annette Warrings and Bernard Eric Jensen on memory, historical awareness and the use of history.

On land, memory, and masculinity: unearthing silences around myths of Gallipoli in Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Ahlat Ağacı (The Wild Pear Tree)

AbstractThis article offers a critical reading of Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Ahlat Ağacı (The Wild Pear Tree) through an exploration and critique of the mythmaking and monumentalization surrounding the Gallipoli Battle and the multiple ways in which Ceylan’s film unsettles the foundational myths of the last century in Turkey. Ceylan’s scenes and characters are constructed in such a way that the male characters and particularly Sinan (the main character) refuse to succumb to hegemonic codes of masculinity. Through this cinematic refusal by an anti-hero (Sinan), the film addresses the crisis of hegemonic masculinities in their interconnectedness to militarism, nationalism, capitalism, and heteronormativity. Through Sinan’s quest for self-realization, the film signals not only the impotence and vanity of nationalist masculinities but also the caesuras and instabilities in national myths. As the last film of Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s new Land of Ghosts trilogy, which started with Once Upon a Time in Anatolia and Winter Sleep, Ahlat Ağacı seems to close the cycle with a final scene that bespeaks the possibility of unearthing lost others of national mythmaking, bringing fertility and hope to the lands in which collective amnesia reigns supreme.

El mito de la frontera y el cowboy presidencial

In this article I highlight the presence of the frontier myth and the cowboy in American society, with great influence on its cultural and political history. Its impact on global culture makes it especially relevant to understand how certain national myths condition behaviors and a certain worldview. I highlight the use of myth by some US presidents, from Roosevelt to Trump, as well as in outstanding works of literature or cinema. It is also important to highlight the importance of pop culture in this country and, due to its influence, in the rest of the world, through well-known examples.

Sámi Literature in Norwegian Language Arts Textbooks

Sámi Literature in Norwegian Language Arts Textbooks

Violence and Post-National Costa Rican Identity in Limón Reggae

Anacristina Rossi’s novels have received critical attention relating to their presentation of pan-Caribbean identity and other challenges to the mythical national identity of the tico. Building on scholarship by Manizal and Kearns, I argue that Limón Reggae presents a representation of the post-national community and that the violent conditions that mark the protagonist’s life not only debunk the national myth of a peaceful Costa Rica, but also comment on the impossibility of belonging in the post-national community. The pain that the protagonist experiences as a result of her interpersonal relationships reflects the difficulty of forming a community after the bounds of the nation have become less defined by globalization, even to individuals who come from groups not traditionally included in the definition of a Costa Rican citizen, such as the protagonist. With the breakdown of categories of affiliation across lines of geography, race, language, and class, the protagonist is able to move easily between places and groups, but her encounters with ‘others’ are complicated by the post-national condition.

Shirin Nezammafi and the unmaking of postcolonial Japan

AbstractThis article takes up the short work of fiction Salam, written in Japanese in 2006 by Shirin Nezammafi, and deploys it as a primary source in the history of the Japanese present. Salam tells the tale of Layla, an Afghan migrant detained in and then expelled from Japan in 2001. The article argues that Salam exposes the unmaking of postcolonial Japan: if postcolonial Japan meant a territorial, sovereign nation-state built on hegemonic national myths, then now it is unsustainable. Salam calls to an inevitable if uncharted post-national, post-territorial future. To advance this argument, the article focuses on Nezammafi's treatment of three humanistic categories tied up with geopolitical territoriality: language, art, and gender. These categories, when associated with the nation-state, generate irony in Salam. That irony stems from the anachronism of nations: territorial nations, Japanese or otherwise, appear as past entities that have outlived their possibility.

Controlling the Past to Control the Future: Christian Nationalism and Mandatory Patriotic Education in Public Schools

AbstractRecent debates about whether educators should teach America's racist history have sparked activism and legislation to ensure students are taught American history in such a way that promotes “patriotism,” amplifying cherished national myths, emphasizing American exceptionalism, and erasing negative historical facts. Building on insights from both social dominance theory and Christian nationalism research, we propose Christian nationalism combines legitimizing myths that whitewash America's past with authoritarian impulses and thus seeks to enforce “patriotic” content in public school classrooms. We also theorize this connection varies across racial, partisan, and ideological identities. Data from a nationally‐representative survey of Americans affirm Christian nationalism is by far the leading predictor Americans believe “We should require public school teachers to teach history in a way that promotes patriotism.” This association is consistent across race (possibly due to divergent meanings of both “Christian nationalism” and “patriotism” across groups), but varies by partisanship and ideological identity for whites. Specifically, Christian nationalism brings whites who identify with the ideological and political left into complete alignment with their conservative counterparts who are already more likely to support mandatory patriotic education. Our findings provide critical context for ongoing battles over public‐school curricula and education's role in perpetuating social privilege.

СОЦІОКУЛЬТУРНА РОЛЬ ЖУРНАЛІСТИКИ В УМОВАХ ВОЄННОГО ЧАСУ

<p><strong><em>The study purpose </em></strong><em>is to outline the developing paradigm of new socio-cultural reality, changes in ideological priorities, and to reveal new cultural phenomena represented in media texts after February 24, 2022.</em></p><p><strong><em>Research Methodology. </em></strong><em>The research applied such methods of scientific knowledge as: historical comparison that was used to analyze and systematize the data on changes in spiritual and cultural national baselines that emerged as the result of Ukrainian society transformation under wartime conditions and were described and reviewed in journalistic texts of a social and cultural nature; the method of data classification and compilation that enabled the clarification and description of vectors for the development of social and cultural content of personal journalism in leading socio-political Gazeta.ua and День.ua web-based media.</em></p><p><strong><em>Results. </em></strong><em>One of the key tasks of journalism in the frames of the social and cultural paradigm is the demythologization of concepts related to the aggressor country, the liberation from empire myths, and rewriting of history. This will benefit the decolonization of Ukrainian culture, which is a long and complicated (though very important) process, especially for the purposes of struggling for self-identification.</em></p><p><em>Due to the unstable and complex social situation under the conditions of Russian aggression, each individual has to realize his/her significance as a citizen and a feeling of spiritual exaltation. This is possible by constructing positive myths that actualise the universal spiritual values of the Ukrainian nation in particular and human civilization in general.</em></p><p><em>At this stage, the social and cultural role of journalism consists not only in spreading the realignment and unveiling artificial myths of the Soviet era but in producing positive national myths that will be aimed at strengthening and retaining national identity and will contribute to representing the image of Ukraine around the world.</em></p><p><strong><em>Novelty. </em></strong><em>The paper makes an attempt to define the social and cultural role of journalism under the conditions of war; new cultural milestones aimed at realigning imperial myths and new cultural phenomena of national myth formation represented in journalistic texts after February 24, 2022, were set</em><em>.</em><em></em></p><p><strong><em>Practical significance. </em></strong><em>The research results could be used for the purpose of further developing personal journalism and representing new strategies of national identity formation to the mass media public.</em></p><p><strong><em>Key words: </em></strong><em>socio-cultural role of journalism, national identity, ideological priorities, cultural phenomena, demythologization, formation of national myths.</em></p>

The Role of the Kresy Discourse in Constructing the Contemporary Identity of Poles in Lithuania

The consequence of establishing new Polish state borders after the Second World War was the mass resettlement of citizens of the pre-war Second Polish Republic (II Rzeczpospolita) from the so-called Kresy – now newly established Lithuanian, Belarusian and Ukrainian republics of the Soviet Union – to the Polish People’s Republic (Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa). The 240,000 Poles, who left the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic as part of the post-war resettlement, were only part of a group of over 1.4 million people resettled to ‘new Poland’. With extraordinary strength, they revived the 19th century myth of the Polish Kresy – one of the most important Polish national myths – which soon became an inseparable part of the Polish national discourse and the main element of Polish identity policy towards Poles who stayed in Kresy. This article is an attempt to answer the following question: What is the meaning of and role played by Kresy myth/discourse in constructing the identity of contemporary Poles living in South-eastern Lithuania – on the territory of these mythical Polish Kresy? The article is based on a series of interviews with Poles from Lithuania and representatives of governmental and non-governmental organisations operating for the Kresy, as well as an analysis of the content of these organisations websites with a project offer addressed to Poles in Lithuania.

The Legitimizing Toolkit of the Romanian Communist Anthems. Ideology and Linguistic Imaginary

"The Legitimizing Toolkit of the Romanian Communist Anthems. Ideology and Linguistic Imaginary. Anthems are associated with nationhood and are part of its legitimizing toolkit. Their complete interpretation usually goes through the analysis of the linguistic imaginary, namely of the mythemes of the age, of the unconscious representations of the community, identifiable in rhythmical patriotic verses. National myths, recycled in patriotic songs Romanians have created since the 19th century, have been coloured differently, according to the ideology of the era. However, during 1948-1989 a double orientation could be “read” in the three national anthems: the natural insinuation of the community’s unconscious projections on the one hand, and the evidence of ideological charge meant to change Romanians’ representations of national reality on the other. Thus, the anthems Broken Shackles (Zdrobite cătușe), We Glorify Thee, Romania (Te slăvim, Românie), and Three colours (Trei culori) mark different stages in the communist discourse, even if they seemingly reuse the same motifs specific to the imaginary of the time: the country, the flag, the proletariat, the victorious past, the bright future and the “crushed” enemies. Keywords: national imaginary, identity legitimation, mythemes, anthems, homeland, ritual, communism, wooden language "

A Shakespearean Prophecy Fulfilled? Slav Solidarity and the Colonial Gaze in Czech Tourism on the Eastern Adriatic (1890s–1930s)

AbstractThis article discusses discourses of Czech tourism on the Eastern Adriatic coast between the turn of the twentieth century and the 1930s using the Czech resorts in Baška on Krk Island and Kupari near Dubrovnik as case studies. The author argues that the ideological foundation of this type of tourism was a narrative of proximity between the Czechs and their fellow Slav Croatians. At the same time, the practice of Czech tourism was characterized by a pattern of cultural paternalism and economic exploitation toward the local population. It thus became a pseudo-colonial enterprise that distorted the Czech national myth of democracy, rationalism, and cosmopolitanism. Nevertheless, tourism still contributed to cultural mediation between Czechs and South Slavs. This article illustrates that point by highlighting the commemoration of the Yugoslav playwright Ivo Vojnović by Czech tourists in the 1930s.

Идеология и реальность: историософский миф у П.А. Флоренского и Л.М. Леонова

The report examines the impact of ideology on historiosophy on the example of the works of P. Florensky and L. Leonov. Both authors explore a human person in the conditions of a totally ideologized social reality, as a consequence of this reality. But at the same time, both authors also come to the conclusion that the metaphysically and metaphorically meaningful experience of their perception of this human person influences and even literally turns over that meaning image of a human person as a precondition for this reality. The meta­morphosis of their contemporary against the backdrop of great historical catastrophes and seemingly historically legitimate dictatorships turns the hero of the historiosophical myth into an anti-hero, and this anti-hero into a new and perhaps the last beginning of the last myth. For both authors, the contemporary is at the same time the source, product and victim of self-hypnosis, which has gained a doctrinal-religious form of ideology. And if Florensky reformats only the national myth, leaving opportunities for positive teleology in negative historiosophy, then Leonov, as it seems, sees its only true version in the negative historiosophy of the international myth.

Modifying the American Dream: An Ethnography of Foreclosure Prevention in the Great Recession

The United States’ housing crisis and Great Recession of 2007-2009 ignited personal, political, and cultural reckoning with central facets of American identity, namely what it means to be middle class. Homeownership is historically a key symbol of having achieved the “American Dream” and entering an idealized middle class. As a cultural phenomenon, foreclosure is therefore a loaded symbol both of individual downward mobility and threats to a national myth of the American Dream. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Michigan in 2009-2011, this paper argues that the housing crisis created a liminal class status of “facing foreclosure”. From that vantage point, homeowners facing foreclosure and housing counselors assisting them critically re-examined the meanings of middle classness. The fieldwork reveals that they relied on material, moral, and political demands to obtain mortgage modifications to reassert their status as middle-class subjects. When these efforts failed, they turned to systemic critiques rather than the individualized blame the American Dream would predict.

(Re-)Shaping Italian-Canadian and Indigenous Connections through Naming Practices

Long before the formation of the first Italian communities in Canada, notable Italian navigators played a key role in the so-called “discovery of the Americas.” Suffice it to think of names like Cristoforo Colombo and Giovanni Caboto, who sailed to North America in 1492 and 1497 as part of European exploration journeys to the “new world.” The history of colonization in Canada and North America in general is therefore inextricably linked to these names, although Italian respon­sibilities in the occupation of Canada are not always acknowledged as such. On the contrary, celebratory traces of this history are still visible in the names of streets, squares, lakes, rivers, mountains, etc., as well as in public holidays and commemorative monuments. The present article aims at addressing the power of names in the creation of cultural mem­ory. More specifically, the article explores the role that place-names and other commemorative practices linked to the Italian presence in Canada play in the commemoration of the colonial past and in the production of a narrative that celebrates the Italian contribution to its colonial occupation. Naming places, people, or holidays is not just a matter of choosing one name over another, but it reveals ideological stances and narratives. Similarly, the presence of celebratory monuments turning Caboto and Colombo into national myths and symbols of Italian Cana­dians ends up affecting the relationships between local Italian-Canadian communities and Indigenous peoples. Possible alternatives may change attitudes towards Indigenous peoples, thus promoting a new solidarity with the Italian-Canadian communities across the country.