National Myths Research Articles

Parallel Horizons: A Comparative Voyage through Modernist and Postmodernist Waves in Australian and Indian Writing

This paper undertakes a comparative exploration of modernist and postmodernist movements in Australian and Indian literature, examining their transformative influence on the global literary landscape of the 20th century. Modernists introduced subjective expressions and disruptive narrative techniques, exploring psychic fragmentation, while postmodernists playfully challenged conventional literary representations. In Australian modernism, Patrick White's "Voss" (1957) critiques imperialism through surreal characterization, and Christina Stead's "The Man Who Loved Children" (1940) employs expressionistic symbolism to highlight marital oppression. Indian modernists, including Tagore and Anand, fused indigenous and Western influences in socially-conscious works addressing colonialism. Transitioning to postmodernism, Peter Carey's "Bliss" (1981) and Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children" (1981) utilize intertextual pastiche to interrogate post-Independence national identities. Modernists disrupt narrative continuity to unveil alienation, while postmodernists expose storytelling's artifice through self-referentiality. The paper argues that narrative shifts between movements reflect changing assumptions about identity and power relations during anti/post-colonial transitions. Australian postmodernists, like Carey, reframe national myths from marginalized perspectives. In Indian postmodernism, Rushdie's carnivalesque narration destabilizes post-Independence identity constructions. In conclusion, modern and postmodern literature document the reconstitution of identity amidst profound societal change. Cross-cultural analysis enriches understanding of how global aesthetic movements intersect with localized interpretations. This study contributes to the discourse on evolving identity in literature, underscoring the significance of narrative transformations across distinct cultural and historical contexts.

History, Memory and Memorabilia: Kamala Dasgupta and the Politics of Remembering Revolutionary Bengal

ABSTRACT This paper examines the interplay between memory, history, nationalism, and visual cultures by focussing on a framed photograph of a revolver gifted to Kamala Dasgupta’s family by the Calcutta (Now Kolkata) police after Indian independence. Once used in an attempted assassination during the anti-colonial struggle, the revolver has become an anomaly in the nation’s collective memory – a ‘floating signifier’ with an unfixed meaning. Analysing the photograph as a media spectacle and a symbol within national myths, I argue that it disrupts linear narratives of progress that dominate nationalist historiography. The article shows how Kamala’s act of procuring the revolver has been overshadowed by her comrade Bina Das’s violent act. Drawing on theories of the spectacle, national temporality, and subaltern studies, I illustrate the selective commemoration of revolutionary violence in India. The research in this paper demonstrates how precarious and subaltern histories such as Kamala’s can destabilise established national narratives and pluralise temporal orders of the nation.

Symbol of (Iranian) Empire: The Sāsānian Imperial Standard (Derafsh-e kāviyān) from Arab-Islamic Conquest Narratives to Modern Nationalist Myths

Abstract: With its capture at the outset of the conquest of Iran in the early seventh century, the imperial Sāsānian standard, known as the Derafsh-e kāviyān , became a metaphor for imperial corruption, underscoring both the righteousness of the Islamic caliphate and the piety of the Arab-Muslim warriors who founded it. Two centuries later, it served as a potent symbol of pre-Islamic Persian splendor and the continuity of its rich tradition. Later still, modern Iranian nationalists raised the "banner of Kāveh" as part of their campaign to foster a sense of national consciousness and pride in the country's ancient heritage. Today, the Derafsh-e kāviyān continues to be a powerful symbol for secular Iranian nationalists campaigning against the Islamic Republic of Iran; for Kurdish nationalists seeking political autonomy; and for Tajik state authorities linking their nation to a mythical past.

The national myth in S. Clarke’s novel “Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell”

The purpose of this article is to study the constituent elements of the English national myth, embodied in the novel “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell” by Susanna Clark (2004). The work gained genuine success immediately after its appearance, but the reasons for this success have not been investigated to date. The literary criticism focused mainly on the way S. Clarke followed the English literary tradition associated with the names of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Walter Scott and other writers of the 19th century. The article traces S. Clark’s skill to handle different sides of the national myth, presented in the novel, by creating characteristic images, typical forms of private and public existence, images of English ethnopsychology, etc. S. Clark introduces into the narrative the oppositions characteristic of the national myth: “we – they”, “friend – foe”, defining the plot conflicts. The result of this is an absolute harmony of the novel pathos with the hypostases of modern English consciousness and an artistic summation of England’s place in the world, its role in human history.

“Mental map” in “Letters of a Russian Traveler” by Nikolay Karamzin and the problem of the national myth representation

The article analyzes “Letters of a Russian Traveler” by Nikolay Karamzin in terms of the symbolic-mythological perception of space, suggesting a view of the countries, depicted in the travelogue, as symbolic-mythological units of the “mental map” in the book. A “mental map” is understood as a holistic image of a geographical space, value-restructured in accordance with the author’s vision of European cultural and the historical situation. The purpose of the work is to reveal the hidden additional plot of Karamzin’s book, which determines the logic of the perception of geographical space and its comprehension, taking into account the historical and political situation witnessed by Karamzin’s hero-traveler. Using the methodology of the structural-semiotic, historical-genetic and comparative-typological reading of the text, as well as the methodology of human geography, the article shows how Karamzin generalizes ideas about the logic of the Western European history and culture development at the end of the 18th century. We also characterize the writer’s symbolic and mythological view of the cultural dialogue between Russia and Europe, the place and role of the “Letters...” of France, Switzerland, England and the countries of the German world on the “mental map”. Conclusions are drawn about the significance of the spatial image of “Letters...” for the design of Karamzin’s historical and political concept of the late 18th century, in which the key role was played by the ideas of the dialogue, the ability to evaluate the achievements of European culture and to develop the potential of Russian culture.

What is old is new again: The deep roots of ethnic nationalism in the digital age

AbstractIn this article, we elaborate on the central themes of our recent book, The New Nationalism in America and Beyond (OUP, 2022), before responding to the comments and criticisms of several esteemed colleagues (Phil Gorski, Cynthia Miller‐Idriss, and Sophie Duchesne). In sum, our book argues that the relative success of right‐wing populists among the white majorities of the West – including Donald Trump in the US, Marine Le Pen in France, and the Brexit Campaigners in the UK – is partly due to the way in which they draw upon long‐established ethnic nationalist myths and symbols in their political communication. By adapting this cultural content to the contemporary context, these elites are ensuring that their messaging resonates among their target populations. In making this case, our book seeks to demonstrate the value of taking culture seriously in the analysis of the so‐called ‘new nationalism.’

Myths of Zimbabwean urban nationalism: Narratives of modernity and exceptionalism in the economic crisis

AbstractZimbabwe has distinct urban nationalist myths stemming from the colonial period—urban modernity and economic exceptionalism. The modernity myth has been constructed from the colonial period and came to be associated with urban order, lifestyle and social mobility. The economic exceptionalism myth refers to Zimbabwe's past exceptional economic performance during the colonial and early postcolonial periods. However, the economic crisis and informalisation from the late 1990s have challenged these myths as neither previous practices of urban modernity nor the feeling of exceptional economic performance is attainable any more. In this context, people in the informal sector reimagine what these nationalist myths mean to them. In particular, they engage in debates about which economic practices are modern enough to be implemented in urban areas, especially in the city centre, and how to identify themselves make a claim to urban modernity. The memory of economic exceptionalism in the meantime acts as a reference point in discussions about future national development. All these translate into the question of legitimacy—of the informal economy and its practices and the government that failed to uphold the modernity and exceptionalism myths.

The Tales of Two Peninsulas: Remaking National Myth and Remapping the US Military Base Network in Fox Gir l (2002) and Soucouyant (2007)

Abstract: This essay juxtaposes the US military bases located at the opposite ends of the Pacific, by reading together two fictional accounts of military prostitution—one set in Busan, a port city south of the Korean Peninsula and the other in Chaguaramas of Trinidad. Both Nora Okja Keller's Fox Girl (2002) and David Chariandy's Soucouyant (2007) turn to traditional children's folktales in recounting the history of military prostitution that is carefully carved out from each peninsula's postwar nation-building discourse. By recentering the transgressive movements of the folk figures who are prominent in the East Asian and Afro-Caribbean imaginary, the novels reimagine the geographic landscapes of each peninsula and spotlight the alternative routes of resistance in the oceanic and atmospheric. Their remaking of the vernacular tales of the soucouyant and nine-tailed fox, gumiho , challenges the discursive legacies of the US "military colony" that silence the histories of military prostitution and interrogates the developmentalist narratives underpinning the national myths.

РОМАНТИЗМ И КОНСТРУКТИВИЗМ В ПОЛЬСКОМ ТЕАТРЕ 1920-1930-Х ГОДОВ

In the 1920-1930s, Polish theatre was experiencing a turn to new comprehension of the practice of stage space organization – the art of scenography was developing. It replaced the practice of creating theatrical decorations for garnishing the play and constituting the background for the action. The new scenography declared itself to be an art of the stage space composing. The development of new theatrical practice was influenced by constructivist spatial and rhythmical perception of environment, which Polish artists were improving in close cooperation with avant-garde architects. A similar approach to the stage design is common for the whole European theatre in the first decades of XX century, however the distinction of theatrical avant-garde in Poland came out as a special reference of the culture to its past and in particular to the romanticism heritage. Polish theatrical avant-garde, which came at restoration of independence time, was developing on overlap of the national myth and new unexplored freedom. Artists of the first half of XX century managed to disengage from the romantic myth only in some measure, but instead of resetting the national heroes and their heritage from the ship of modernity they turned to search for the new forms to embody that matter. The article reviews Polish theatre of the 1920-1930-s in the context of Polish romantic tradition on the one hand and constructivism, promoted by new avant-garde artist collectives – on the other. As an example of integration of two movements, a brief description of the unique project of Simultaneous theatre, created by stage designer Andrzej Pronaszko and architect Szymon Syrkus is given.

More Than a Feeling: Storytelling, Memory, and National Myths at Dark Events

Dark events are frequently analyzed in terms of their social and political contexts and this is especially true in the case of dark commemorative events, linked to national tragedies, wars, and other conflicts. Countries stage national commemorative events to create and sustain national myths. The way that these are designed and held, combining multiple elements into a narrative form, can be understood as a process of nationalist storytelling. This research note argues that while previous research into these events has drawn on theories of collective memory, viewing them from a storytelling perspective suggests that alternative approaches of competitive or multidirectional memory can provide insightful explanations of the often-contested role they play in national myths and contemporary social and political conflicts.

Decline of a national icon: Derogatory representations of the Romanian peasant in recent television programs

Intellectuals and artists have been crafting an image of the Romanian peasant as the building block of the nation since the second half of the 19th century. The process went hand in hand with the modernization of the elites, and the peasant was thus mainly ‘discovered’ within the cultural framework of Romanticism, as the ‘eternal autochthon’ (Mihăilescu,2017, p.173), creator of the specific Kultur of the Romanian people. However, dramatic social transformations such as the difficult transition period of the ʹ90s have shifted the focus from a complimentary representation of the peasant as the national foundation – and all the positive characteristics of his/her habitus in terms of material, spiritual and aesthetic values– to a rather alienated and anachronistic figure coming across as a burden that has to be carried into modernity by the enlightened social strata. This paper uses visual analysis, grounded in Barthesian semiotics, to explore the changes in modes of representation of the peasant in popular media from the depository of national values to a marginal lower class, striving to keep up with the urban lifestyle. Various portrayals of peasants in TV series and sketches, movies and memes point to the degradation of the peasant figure in the public imagination. Images of poverty, bad taste and a lack of hygiene seem to pollute the bodies, garments and home environments of the rural characters, with a toxic effect on their language and behaviour as well. Although there have always been derogatory images of the peasants in the discourse of the elites (Mihăilescu also coined the term ‘domestic primitive’ for the representation associated with the historical tendency to portray the peasants as a backward population incapable of progress), in recent times this tendency has prevailed, especially with the rural-themed successful TV series Las Fierbinți, for mainly ideological reasons which will be discussed. Thus, apart from deconstructing a national myth, I argue that the representation of contemporary peasants and their degenerating habitus also contributes to the polarization in the Romanian society.

Putin’s retelling of the Great Patriotic War myth and the construction of Russian national identity

Political elites often use the nation’s past to construct the nation’s present identity. In his speeches about the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin frequently uses the Russian national myth of the Great Patriotic War to construct Russia’s present duties, values, and identity. Charges of neo-Nazism and fascism against Ukraine are made to construct the Russian national identity as one that fights proactively against Nazism. However, by using a myth set in the Soviet period, the status of Ukraine as either part of the Russian Self or constituting the foreign Other is highly ambiguous. Although cynical and deeply offensive, Putin’s use of Nazi imagery therefore has a purpose deeper than causing shock and offence.

National myths and the inabilities of nations to mourn and to atone: An essay prompted by “The inability to mourn and nationalism in Japan after 1945”, and “A machine of the same: Repetition in the foundational discourse of the Argentinian ‘being’ (1976–1983)”

National myths and the inabilities of nations to mourn and to atone: An essay prompted by “The inability to mourn and nationalism in Japan after 1945”, and “A machine of the same: Repetition in the foundational discourse of the Argentinian ‘being’ (1976–1983)”

War, terror and mourning. Cultural memory in the inner dialogue

ABSTRACT This text compares four essays dealing with war, state terror in dictatorships, social violence such as racism, mourning and the avoidance of mourning. It shows that dictatorships share similarities in their techniques of manipulation, linguistic style and reference to history. They seek to exploit national myths through manipulative alienation. Myths are a central element of cultural memory, and their effect can be understood through a model of internal dialogue. This dialogue determines whether the regime's attempts at manipulation are successful.

Mythodesign in Modern Kazakh Realities

Abstract Kazakhstan is in a state of transformation. This is due, on the one hand, to the internal processes of generational change, the economic crisis, and demographic changes. But also, on the other hand, to the collapse of the global security system and the dysfunctionality of international organisations such as Amnesty International, Red Cross, OSCE, and UN. These challenges lead to the construction of a new system of meanings that will help unite Kazakh society. Mythodesign can be a technology for achieving this. In scientific publications, there are gaps in the analysis of how mythodesign is used in Kazakhstan. The article will analyse the state and prospects of mythodesign development in modern Kazakh reality. Mythodesign in the first thirty years of Kazakhstan’s independence included the following elements. Domestic policy: multiculturalism and dialogue in Kazakh society, especially the between the titular (Kazakh) and non-titular (Russian) nations. Foreign policy: a multi-vector policy that came about as a response to Kazakhstan’s geopolitical position. This manifests itself in Kazakhstan’s participation in the Eurasian Economic Union. The key political figure who constructed the national myth was N. Nazarbayev, whose political brand followed these key elements. This study can be used to develop new mythologemes for Kazakhstan.

‘And I overcame a Jew hater, somewhere in the mountains’ three versions of a hike and a fight with an Arab robber

ABSTRACT The need for a common memory creates a link between personal stories and the shared values of the nation’s citizens. Flamm’s story reflects an attempt to create such a link. In 1943, a group of hikers in the Galilee came upon an Arab who attempted to rob them at gunpoint. Joseph Flamm, the group’s guide and an amateur wrestler, fought the Arab, subdued him and killed him. A different version of the story of this incident came up every few years. Joseph Flamm, the story’s hero, played a major role in the attempt to paint the incident in nationalistic colours. His own involvement in publicizing and shaping the story enables us to examine the encounter between a personal attempt to enter the national collective memory and the political use that was made of the story. This article discusses the attempt to turn this criminal event into a national heroic event in the context of the Arab Israeli conflict. The later versions presented it as a tangible expression of national myths, among them scouting and knowledge of Israel’s geography, physical heroism and defending the homeland. The last version of the story was published in the 1970s, a period that signalled a change in the Zionist ethos. The Israeli public no longer showed interest in heroic stories such as Flamm’s. Therefore, despite attempts to revive the story and efforts to affix it in the collective memory, it eventually disappeared from the public eye.

Giuseppe Mazzini and revolutions in the Third World: transnational echoes of Mazzini’s emancipatory nationalism

ABSTRACT This article argues that, to understand the 20th century, it is instructive to reflect upon the thought of Giuseppe Mazzini which, to a greater extent than that of Karl Marx, shaped the revolutionary struggles of the period under the banner of the myth of class or nation. Mazzini’s thought is paradigmatic of a wide range of revolutionary political systems, inspired by an ideology that sought to reconcile class and nation in the myth of the ‘third way.’ This is particularly evident in the revolutionary struggles that inflamed the Third World during the era of decolonization, and which made the principle of self-determination of peoples, collaboration between classes, emotional appeals to the people and the ethic of sacrifice and work – all central to Mazzini’s ideology – their pièces de résistance.

Translocal lessons from transitional justice in Colombia: Truth, art, and memory to advance human rights and transform societies

This article highlights the expansion of traditional concepts of transitional justice in Colombia to include an emphasis on human rights and the empowerment of marginalized communities. It describes how grassroots truth processes, collective art projects, and memory work have been essential to a transitional justice experiment that challenges dominant national narratives and power structures. It argues that Colombia’s experience may provide lessons for other political communities across the globe that are struggling to address legacies of past injustice, ongoing structural violence, and a rise in xenophobic nationalism. More broadly, it examines how this experiment might inform a model for political imaginaries based on social connections across differences—one that can compete with the power of nationalist myths of singular community. Importantly, it suggests the opportunity for horizontal borrowings via translocal networks of innovative human rights practices worldwide, not necessarily mediated by Global North institutions. This illustrates the contention that human rights globalization can operate through local advocacy.

Is adoption an environmental threat? Domestication fantasies in Swedish adoption narratives

In 2017 Ghassan Hage published Is Racism an Environmental Threat? The book’s question misleads. For Hage does not seek to show that the former leads to the latter, rather, he elucidates the logics of domination that are common to both. Hage states that ‘generalised domestication’ is the clearest optic through which to see both racism reproducing and revitalising itself and violence towards the environment. This is a way of being in the world that seeks to capture, tame, domesticate and control people and non-humans. It seeks to render others docile and to extract value from them. In so doing it leads to the creation of ‘homely spaces’. Following Hage, this article asks: Is adoption an environmental threat? We reflect on the role of international adoption in fantasies of Swedishness using Hage’s concept of domestication to explore the desire for ‘transracial’ bodies of adoptees in white national space. We argue that the adoptee body plays an important role in domesticating the Swedish nation. It is used to represent national myths of goodness, anti-racism and international solidarity; effectively bringing national projects into the home. This is linked to a broader desire for domestication that encompasses colonialism, slavery and species and environmental domination. While our focus is on Sweden – which has the highest per capita adoption rates in the world – we hope that our scholarship can inform adoption issues elsewhere, as well as contribute to sociological debates around extraction and domination in postcolonial contexts more broadly.

Decolonising Studies of Religion in So-Called Australia: Truth-Telling, Collective Reflections and Future Trajectories

ABSTRACT Studies of religion in the lands now called (by some) Australia have thus far focused mainly on so-called Abrahamic traditions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, the southern states of New South Wales and Victoria and on theories from the global North. This is despite the fact that Australia is a religiously and spiritually diverse nation, and that diverse worldviews in Australia have long been and continue to be shaped by First Peoples, and South–South flows of migration across the Pacific and Indian oceans, particularly in Australia’s far northern regions. This article begins with truth-telling of the historical and contemporary reality of the religious and spiritual composition of Australia, challenging the myth of a White Christian nation. It then includes a series of scholarly and personal reflections, by the paper’s authors, on why and how there is a need to decolonise studies of religion in Australia. These author narratives, recounting lived experiences from their diverse positionalities including their First Peoples, Indonesian, Chinese, African, and/or European backgrounds, further reflect Australia’s multifaith and ‘multicultural Real’ (Hage 1998). The paper concludes with an analysis of these narratives and posits ways forward to dislocate coloniality in the study of religion across the Asia-Pacific region.