Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Nationalism – History – 20th century'

This thesis seeks to relate the forms of liberal nationalism, which emerged in Scotland and Quebec between 1899 and 1914, to the character of the institutions which governed. The substantive focus is on two liberal nationalist groupings: the Young Scots' Society and the more loosely grouped Ligue nationaliste canadienne. Their emergence is examined at three levels: imperial, federal and local civil society.
The British Empire exerted an overarching influence on both Scotland and Quebec. Yet each enjoyed a very different relationship to the empire. Liberal nationalists responded differently to the same policies---the South African War, Tariff Reform and the Naval Question. The Young Scots invoked Liberal principles: freedom of speech, free trade and disarmament. The Nationalistes' response was nationalist: these were encroachments on Canadian sovereignty. Yet both groupings shared a liberal conception of empire, characterised by autonomy and decentralisation.
Scotland and Quebec enjoyed a 'federal' relationship to their states (Britain/Canada). Deficiencies in these systems prompted different responses. The Young Scots campaigned in support of a Scottish Home Rule Parliament. The Nationalistes favoured a Canadian federation which was avowedly consociational, one which recognised Canadian duality. These were liberal measures of accommodating difference.
Finally, Scotland and Quebec possessed distinctive civil societies. Yet they differed in the degree to which they were governed by liberal norms. In Scotland a liberal ethos was sustained by both the dominant Liberalism and Presbyterianism. However in Quebec the dominant Catholic church sought to preserve its hegemony over francophone society against Liberal challenges. Liberal nationalists not only reflected the distinct national character of their civil societies but also the degree to which those societies were governed by liberal norms.
It was these configurations of institutions and norms which ensured that the nationalisms which emerged in Scotland and Quebec were liberal in character. Yet there were important differences: greater emphasis was placed on Liberalism in Scotland ("Liberal nationalists") while the emphasis was on Nationalism in Quebec ("liberal Nationalists"). The character of empire, federalism and civil society in Scotland and Quebec shaped the nationalisms that emerged between the Boer War and the First World War.

This thesis will examine the relationship between art, nationalism and identity as it appears in the context of the 1967 Montreal Universal Exposition. "Expo 67" saw a confrontation between Canadian and Quebecois expressions of nationalism, and we will concentrate on this aspect as it appears through the artistic representations in the different national pavilions.
We will also look into the artworks presented by young Quebecois artists in the more marginal "Youth Pavilion" situated on Ile Sainte-Helene, and will explain how this new generation of artists was able to take advantage of the particular context of the Universal Exhibition in order to implement its own concept of national identity, an identity closely related to popular culture, and thus very different from the image projected by the Quebecois elite of the time.

This thesis attempts to establish the First Turkish History Congress (July 2--11, 1932) as an exemplary moment that can help us understand the relationship between nationalism and historiography. The thesis first examines the roots of nationalist historiography in the West and in Ottoman Empire, and then paraphrases the proceedings of the congress in detail. It arrives at the view that during the formation of a nation state in alignment with European standards, Turkish nationalists within the Ottoman Empire often found it necessary to review the methodology and the content of history books. The break with Ottoman historiography was a result of the uniform Western approach to the past, promoted by Western schools of thought. Thus, to become a nationalist meant to re-write history in Western fashion.
Available sources on the First Turkish History Congress and the role of religion and language for the Turkish nationalist endeavors are referred throughout the thesis. In its conclusion, this study raises questions about the close relationship between nationalism and historiography, and the influence of nationalism on our view of history today.

[Truncated abstract] Conventional historical research on the tea trade focussed on the trade between the United Kingdom and China up to 1937. Very little has been done on the tea trade between China and other regions such as colonial Singapore. In addition, the focus on the overseas Chinese community in Singapore has concentrated on two opposite ends of the social ladder the rich traders or merchants who came to dominate the political, economic and social life of the community, and the coolies or those in the working class and how the harsh reality of life in colonial Singapore often quashed any dreams they had of a better life. The key focus of this dissertation is a study of the trading links between a group of Chinese traders in Singapore and commodity producers in China. To date, research into Chinese traders in Singapore has focussed on their trade in products from British Malaya such as rubber and tin. This dissertation aims to steer away from this approach, and study the relationship between Fujian tea production and trade and the Chinese tea traders in Singapore . . . This dissertation, therefore, takes a two-pronged approach. First, it examines the conditions in Fujian tea production and trade since they were the key trading concerns of the Chinese tea traders in Singapore. Secondly, the dissertation examines the political beliefs and sense of patriotism among the Chinese tea traders in Singapore and their response to major events in their lives such as the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), the Japanese Occupation of Singapore (1942-1945), the Chinese Civil War (1945-1949) and self-government for Singapore from June 1959.

This study seeks to analyze the Turkish nation-building process during the early Republican period (1920-1938). In doing this, the substantive focus will be on three main dimensions --language, education, and citizenship -- with particular emphasis on the rhetoric and actions of the political elite.
By looking at language, education, and citizenship policies, and their formulations, the present analysis will make three main propositions: First, and in contrast to the existing literature on nations and nation-building, it will be demonstrated that the process of Turkish nation-building was neither a smooth nor an automatic process. Moreover, during the period under analysis, there were competing definitions of nationhood which were taken up, and discussed by the political elite. The final conceptualization of nationhood --which took an assimilationist form with an ethnic understanding attached to it -- was formed over time. At times, the process was wrought with tensions as illustrated by the heated debates among the political elite.
Second, the present analysis will seek to bring together two different ways of looking at nation formation. More specifically, the analysis will attempt to bridge the gap between those works which only underline the role of ideas in the formation of nations, and those which emphasize the role of structural forces. By paying attention to the "voices" (and actions) of the political elite, this study will demonstrate that it is not only ideas, nor is it only structural forces that matter. Rather, the crystallization of the contents of Turkish nationhood illustrates the interplay of ideological as well as geopolitical and political forces.
Third, a detailed analysis of the trajectory of Turkish nation-building and the formulation of Turkish nationhood reveals the complexity of this process. The existing literature on Turkey tends to treat the Kemalist era as an undifferentiated whole. The present work will remain critical to such an outlook. Instead, and by looking at the shifting conceptualizations of nationhood, it will seek to demonstrate the complexity and contingent nature of the Turkish nation-building process.

This thesis examines the central place of racial theories in the nationalist ideology of the Croatian Ustasha movement and regime, and how these theories functioned as the chief motive in shaping Ustasha policies toward the minorities of the Nazi-backed Independent State of Croatia (known by its Croatian initials as the NDH), namely, Serbs, Jews, Roma and Bosnian Muslims, during the years 1941 to 1945. This thesis is divided into three parts. The first part deals with historical background, concentrating on the history of Croatian national movements from the 1830s to the 1930s. The second part covers the period between the founding of the Ustasha movement in 1930 and the creation of the NDH in 1941. The third part examines the period of Ustasha power from 1941 to 1945. Through the above chronological division, this thesis traces the evolution of Ustasha ideas on nation and race, placing them within the historical context of processes of Croatian national integration. Although the Ustashe were brought to power by Nazi Germany, their ideology emerged less as an imitation of German National Socialism and more as an extremist reaction to the supranational and expansionist nationalist ideologies of Yugoslavism and Greater Serbianism. In contrast to the prevailing historiographical view that has either ignored or downplayed the significance of racial theori! es on Ustasha policies toward the minorities of the NDH, this thesis highlights the marked influence of the question of 'race' on Ustasha attitudes toward the 'problem' of minorities, and on the wider question of Croatian national identity. This thesis examines the Ustashe by focusing on the historical interplay between nationalism and racism, which dominated so much of the modern political life of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. The fusion of nationalism and racism was not unique to Ustasha ideology, but the evolution and nature of Ustasha racism was. Ustasha racial ideas were therefore the product of both specific Croatian and wider European historical trends. This examination of the historical intersection between nationalism and racism in the case of the Ustashe will, i hope, broaden our understanding of twentieth-century nation-state formation, and state treatment of minorities, in the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

‘Everybody who writes history has a bone to pick with the past’ said George Wilson. Perhaps not so much with the past itself as with the images of the past created by other historians. The images and concepts are created, moulded not only by the practical needs and expectations of the time and place that produced them, but also coloured by the theory fashionable at the time. They seem to be useful for a period of time, but at a certain stage they become a hindrance rather than a help, as they tend to limit rather than expand our knowledge of the past. One such concept is that of nationalism. Although it is far from clear what exactly constitutes nationalism, the immediate association is that of some sort of selfish claim by a group which calls itself a nation or aspires to become one. If it is for the self, it must necessarily be against somebody else, so goes our reasoning. Anything that excludes has a particularly bad press right now and this is reflected in the amount of scholarship on nationalism. This renewed interest in the subject is due to the break-up of the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries in the last decade or so, because of the scale and viciousness of nationalist struggles between various ethnic groups. However, in Western studies of Japanese history the subject of nationalism never went out of fashion, so to speak. While most of modern Japan’s history is viewed, judged and understood, or misunderstood, through the prism of nationalism, this is particularly true of the interwar period. Not only are the military adventures on the continent seen as an example of nationalism, but most, if not all, intellectual discourse of the period is labelled ‘cultural nationalism’.

This paper deals with the subject of expressions of masculinity in relation to nationalism and citi-zenship, focusing on how these expressions played a role in the shaping of the masculine ideal in the Civil Guard in Vaasa and Västerbotten's Shooting Association during the period of 1918 to 1944. The focus of the study lies on how masculinity, nationalism, and citizenship were connected in the two movements and how they contributed to an idea of an ideal masculinity and a male role as defender and protector of the nation. To accomplish this George L. Mosses’ theory of the evolu-tion of a modern masculine stereotype has been applied, in connection with theoretical concepts of nationalism and citizenship. The material has been subjected to a qualitative analysis with a herme-neutic approach, to be able to interpret and understand it in relation to the above mentioned theoreti-cal concepts. A comparative method has also been applied to the material, to enable placing these two local groups in a larger context by comparing them to one another. This paper argues that these two groups were based on an ideal of the masculine protector and citizen of the nation. A strong sense of duty to the nation followed closely the idea of a male citizen, whose task of maintaining skills of shooting and bodily fitness played a role in creating the ideal man of the nation. The three concepts of masculinity, nationalism, and citizenship played a crucial role in this process and there-fore they were interrelated. This study shows that shooting was viewed as preparation for war in a politically unstable environment during the examined time period. In both movements, the fear of conflict and/or war was present in varying degrees and the general political situation in Europe gave rise to a strong sense of vigilance. Class conflict was present in both countries and affected the two groups as well, though the situation in Finland was more on edge and culminated in the Finnish Civil War of 1918. Shooting was a way of creating strong, able, and well-adjusted citizens. It was also important that young boys and men were introduced to shooting in particular and sports in gen-eral. The Swedes and the Finns in their respective groups arranged shooting competitions together and established a close contact with one another in some form of mutual exchange. Efforts were made in shaping the male body both on the inside and outside, especially in the Finnish group where bodily strength and appearance was of great importance.

This thesis will examine the role of Islamist political parties and what effect their interpretation of national identity has played in dividing the people of Sudan, resulting in two civil wars. It will examine the manifestations and interpretations of Islam and pan-Arabism among the various Islamist parties of Northern Sudan, exploring the ethnic and religious factors which influence Islamist political groups, as well as their social bases which are tied to economics, language, and the conception of a distinctly "Arab" or "African" culture. This thesis will argue that the predominance of these Islamist political parties in the Sudanese government combined with the lack of a Sudanese identity and historical factors have combined to prevent the consolidation of state power, leading to situations of protracted conflict. The imposition, or attempted imposition, of an Islamic identity on the state as a whole prevents unity as it necessarily excludes certain parts of the population as well as disenfranchising those who, whilst they might be Muslim, do not subscribe to the same interpretation of Islamic identity.

This study describes how the New Order regime created and used a particular version of the Indonesian past. This official past drew on the work of "the history industry" (archaeological and historical research) and is reflected in approved works of history writing. The New Order past can also be seen in textbooks and in what monuments the regime erected. The New Order chose to emphasize fourteenth century Majapahit empire; this hierarchical, Java-centred, Hindu empire was identified as the true ancestor of the present nation. Although Indonesia is overwhelmingly Muslim in population, subsequent Muslim advances were not stressed, except as part of the "palace culture" of Central Java, which was seen as an extension of Majapahit. Islam also provided its share of "national heroes" who fought against the Dutch colonialists. Dutch control, was looked upon with some ambiguity; the colonial regime was oppressive but it also provided stability. The Dutch were driven out during the 1945--1949 Revolution. The New Order gave credit for the Indonesian victory in this struggle to the military rather than to civilians such as Sukarno. The Revolution later took on a more radical character that culminated in an attempt on the part of the Indonesian Communist Party to seize power. The suppression of the September 30 Movement in 1965 was seen as a righting of the nation's proper path of development, a course that could in fact be traced back to Gajah Mada's Majapahit. Not all were impressed with this official history. A more Islamic "history in waiting," which differed significantly from that of the regime, was created by historians and archaeologists working within the New Order. This "ummat-oriented" past stressed long connections between Indonesia and the rest of the Muslim world. The New Order's past was used to foster national integration and the legitimacy of the regime itself. The fate of the Suharto Presidency might indicate that the past was utiliz

This dissertation consists of a critical component, 'Memoir-Writing and the Post-Colonial Southeast Asian Subject' and a creative piece titled Across Three Languages, Two Lands: A Life Narrative. Critical Component: Stuart Hall's definition of the individual as a subject underpins the critical component of my dissertation. Hall, working with Foucault's concept of subjectivity, states that 'the subject is produced within discourse ... It must submit to its rules and conventions, to its dispositions of power/knowledge' (Hall, 1997a, p. 55). For the purpose of this dissertation, I focus on cultural and social influences that impact on the post-colonial subject of Southeast Asia during the time period covered in the life narrative. In terms of cultural discourse, I investigate the adoption of English over the individual's native language, and by inference culture, as one's first language. In the area of social discourse, I look into the influence of nationalism in the context of Malaysia and Singapore. My investigation is carried out through an analysis of Maxine Hong Kingston's Woman Warrior. The Return by K.S. Maniam and Among the White Moonfaces by Shirley Lim. Through the creative component, I strive to do two things: narrate a personal story and in it, portray aspects of social history. The critical essay provides explanations for a more cogent reading of the life story. In addition the essay brings another facet of understanding to the postcolonial experience, one from the Southeast Asian point of view. Creative Component: Across Three Languages, Two Lands: A Life Narrative is the life story of the protagonist, Leong Kah Yan. Yan was born into a traditional Cantonese/Chinese family and grew up in newly independent, post-colonial Malaysia, in the 1960s and 1970s. Being Chinese and educated in English resulted in her subsequent marginalisation when Malaysia switched to privileging the Malays in the country's version of nationalism. Her migration to Singapore in the late 1970s coincided with the country plunging into vigorous nation-building and brought questions of delineation between nation and self. In addition, there was also the personal struggle between the role of English and her native language and culture in her life. Coming to terms with all these factors brought resolution to a certain degree. With awareness that each factor had left an indelible mark on her identity, Van's reconciliation is a middle ground where the individual is comfortable amidst communal and nationalistic demands. Reference Hall, S. (1997a) The Work of Representation. IN HALL, S. (Ed.) Representation: Cultural Representations & Signifying Practices. London, Sage Publications.

The political modernization of Quebec in the 1960s meant that the close identification of French Canadian identity with the Roman Catholic faith was replaced by a new secular nationalism. Using David Martin's A General Theory of Secularization, I examine the reaction of the Catholic Church to its own loss of power and to the rise of this new secular nationalism. Conservative Catholics first condemned the new nationalism; by 1969 some conservative accepted the new society and even supported its state interventionism. Most important Catholic groups, including the hierarchy, the most dynamic organizations, and largest publications came to accept the new society. Inspired by the religious reforms of the Second Vatican Council and new papal social teaching, they affirmed the right of Quebeckers to self-determination and social justice. The Church created a sustained ethical critique of nationalism as a means of redefining its public presence in Quebec society. The consensus around this ethical critique and redefinitions of the Church role is evident in the participation of Catholic groups in the 1980 referendum on sovereignty-association.

The dissertation deals with theoretical problem: it seeks to resolve the issues of what determines the competition of identity ideologies, what its manifestations are and what variations of demonstration of belonging and separateness of the population in a particular city of the South-Eastern Baltic Sea region can be created by this competition. The city of Klaipėda and the 20th century are taken as spatial and temporal boundaries of the study, thereby realising that the processes of the competition of identity ideologies which took place in Klaipėda were more general and incidental to many cities of particular South-Eastern Baltic Sea region. This is regarded as the case analysis in a comparative context, which aims at producing generalizations, limited by one case empirical data, of phenomena generic to many cities of the South-Eastern Baltic Sea region, and thereby to contribute to generalization of competition of identity ideologies incidental to multiple cases on the basis of a single case. The objective of the doctoral dissertation is to disclose the influence of the competition of the main consolidating identity ideologies in the public communication space of the city of Klaipėda on the identity of inhabitants of this city in the 20th century and formulate the pattern of the competition of such identity ideologies in the city of the South-Eastern Baltic Sea region on the ground of empirical data. In attaining this objective, the dissertation: 1) analyses the semantics... [to full text]
Disertacijoje sprendžiama teorinė problema: ja siekiama atsakyti į klausimą, nuo ko priklauso, kaip reiškiasi ir kokias gyventojų prisiskyrimo ir atskirumo demonstravimo variacijas konkrečiame Pietryčių Baltijos jūros regiono mieste gali sukurti tapatybės ideologijų konkurencija. Tyrimo erdvinė ir chronologinė apimtis yra apribota Klaipėdos miestu XX amžiuje, sykiu suvokiant, kad Klaipėdoje vykę tapatybių ideologijos konkurencijos procesai buvo bendresni, pasireiškę ir kituose Pietryčių Baltijos jūros regiono miestuose. Tai yra atvejo analizė lyginamajame kontekste, kuria siekiama pateikti vieno atvejo empirine medžiaga apribotus apibendrinimus apie reiškinius, būdingus daugeliui Pietryčių Baltijos jūros regiono miestų, ir šitaip vieno atvejo pagrindu prisidėti prie tapatybės ideologijos konkurencijos, būdingos daugybei atvejų, apibendrinimo. Disertacijos tikslas yra atskleisti pagrindinių konsoliduojančių tapatybės ideologijų konkurencijos Klaipėdos miesto viešojoje bendravimo erdvėje įtaką šio miesto gyventojų tapatybei XX amžiuje ir empirinės medžiagos pagrindu suformuluoti tokių tapatybės ideologijų konkurencijos Pietryčių Baltijos jūros regiono mieste modelį. Joje nagrinėjamas Klaipėdoje aktualizuotas nacionalistinių tapatybės ideologijų reikšminis turinys ir šių ideologijų simbolinio ir ritualinio palaikymo viešojo bendravimo erdvėje būdai 1918–1939 m., 1945–1988 m. ir po 1988 m.; yra nustatomi tapatybės ideologijų, kurios buvo palaikomos Klaipėdoje, konkurencijos... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

Uppsatsens syfte har varit att studera uttryck för banal nationalism i svenska dagstidningar under världsmästerskapen i fotboll för herrar i USA 1994. Dels för att vidga begreppet nationalism, dels bidra med exempel på hur den kan synliggöras i vardagliga sammanhang och därigenom riskerar reproducera nationella föreställningar. Uppsatsens teoretiska ramverk har varit Michael Billigs diskursteori banal nationalism med understöd av Marianne Winther Jørgensens och Louise Phillips begreppsmetaforer för nationella diskurser. För att kunna genomföra en fördjupad analys har uppsatsen haft kompletterande forskningsfrågor om hur Sveriges spelare och tränare samt hur Sveriges motståndarspelare och motståndartränare framställs i materialet. Empirin har bestått utav 157 publiceringar inklusive tidningarnas omslag fördelat över 26 utgåvor av Aftonbladet (9), Expressen (9) samt Dagens Nyheter (8). Analysen visar att banal nationalism i hög utsträckning, på ett till synes omedvetet sätt, varit del i utgåvornas publiceringar kring världsmästerskapen. De uttryck för banal nationalism som förekommer kan ses som försök till att skapa engagemang och intresse hos läsare, men dessa språkliga val bidrar likväl till att producera och reproducera en närmast självklar nationell gemenskap. Därtill är skildringar av Sveriges spelare och tränare likartad mellan tidningar och utgåvor, samt står i kontrast till skildringar av motståndare. De förstnämnda ges egenskaper såsom ödmjuka och lojala, kloka och beslutsamma. Motståndare porträtteras inte sällan som irrationella och oberäkneliga. Styrdokument och historiedidaktisk forskning föreskriver att en elevcentrerad undervisning bör bedrivas, vilket ställer krav på historielärare att vara förtrogen med begrepp som nationalism. Uppsatsen visar att nationella föreställningar på ett oreflekterat sätt kan produceras och reproduceras i till synes vardagliga sammanhang. Resultatet kan således anses bidra med ett angeläget perspektiv för blivande historielärare att reflektera över.
The purpose of this essay has been to study expressions of banal nationalism in Swedish media during the World Cup in the United States 1994. It is meant to expand the knowledge of nationalism in day-to-day life, and how nationalistic ideas might be reproduced and reinforced. The theoretic framework of this essay relies on Michael Billigs discourse theory of banal nationalism, supplemented by Marianne Winther Jørgensens and Louise Phillips theories on metaphors in relation to national discourse. The investigated material consists of 157 different kinds of publications including first pages spread over 26 issues of Aftonbladet (9), Expressen (9) and Dagens Nyheter (8). The analysis shows that banal nationalism is prominent in the issue’s printed materials during the World Cup. The portrayals of Swedish’s players and coach are similar between newspapers and issues and stand in stark contrast to portrayals of the opponents. First mentioned are characterized as humble, loyal, wise and determined. Opponents are often characterized as unpredictable and inconstant. These expressions can be seen as attempts to create engagement and involvement, but nevertheless they´re also a part of producing and reproducing an almost self-explanatory national community. Ruling school documents and history didactic research shows that student-centered learning is preferrable, which demands a history teacher who is confidant with terms like nationalism. This essay shows that national conceptions can be produced and reproduced in ordinary life situations, in a seemingly unreflected way. The results can therefore be considered a meaningful perspective for soon-to-be history teachers to reflect upon.

This thesis investigates the relationship between Fascist Italy and the League of Nations (LoN) during the interwar period, with a particular focus on the years from 1922 to 1935. This relationship was contradictory, shifting from moments of active collaboration to moments of open disagreement. The existing historiography on the Italian membership of the League has not reflected this oscillation in policy, focusing disproportionally on the crises Italy caused at the League. However, Fascist Italy remained in the League for more than 15 years, ranking as the third-largest power, and was fully engaged in the institution's work. This dissertation investigates the dynamics that developed between Fascist Italy and the LoN through a systematic study of the Italians involved. In so doing, it contributes to the historiography of the LoN and of the Italian foreign policy in the interwar period. The thesis argues that there was more to the Italian membership of the LoN than the Ethiopian crisis. It reveals the extent of the Italian presence and activity in the institution from the beginning, and demonstrates that the organization was more important to the Italian government than previously recognized. Membership of the League was essential to guarantee Italy international legitimation and recognition. Through an active appropriation of internationalism, the Italian government hoped to obtain practical benefits in the colonial sphere. The thesis uncovers the depth and variety of interactions between nationalism and internationalism in the case of Italy and the League, establishing that they did not oppose each other but rather interacted. This dissertation illustrates the complexity of being an Italian working in the League, as well as the grey areas between nationalism and internationalism evident within individual experiences. Finally, it shows the continuity of actors and expertise in Italy's international cooperation between the interwar and the post-1945 period.

[Truncated abstract] This thesis offers a re-contextualisation of multiculturalism and immigration in Australia in the 1970s and 80s in relation to crucial and progressive shifts in gender and sexuality. It provides new ways of examining issues of belonging and cultural citizenship in this field of inquiry, within an Australian context. The thesis explores the role sexuality played in creating a framework through which anxieties about immigration and multiculturalism manifested. It considers how debates about gender and sexuality provided fuel to concerns about ethnic diversity and breaches of the 'cultural' borders of Australia. I have chosen three significant historical moments in which anxieties around events relating to immigration/multiculturalism were most heightened: these are the beginning of the 'official' policy of multiculturalism in Australia in 1973; the arrival of large numbers of Vietnamese refugees as a consequence of the Vietnam War in 1979; and 1984, a year in which the furore over the alleged 'Asianisation' of Australia reached a peak. In these years, multiple and recurring representations served to recreate norms as applicable to the white heterosexual family, not only as a commentary and prescriptive device for migrants, but as a means of reinforcing 'Australianness' itself. A focus on the body as a border/site of belonging and in turn, crucially, its relationship to the heterosexual nuclear family as a marker of 'cultural citizenship', lies at the heart of this exploration. Normative ideas of gender and sexuality, I demonstrate, were integral in informing the ambivalence about multiculturalism and ethnic diversity in Australia. Indeed, for each of these years I examine how the discourses of gender and sexuality, evident for example in parliamentary debates such as that relating to the Sex Discrimination Act 1984, were intricately tied to ongoing concerns regarding growing non-white ethnicity in Australia, and indeed, enabled it. ... In pursuing this contribution, the work draws critically upon recent innovative interdisciplinary scholarship in the field of sexuality and immigration, and draws upon a broad range of sources to inform a comprehensive and complex examination of these issues. Sources employed include the major newspapers and periodicals of the time, Parliamentary debates from the Commonwealth House of Representatives, Parliamentary Committee findings and publications, speeches and polemics, and relevant legislation. This inquiry is an interrogation of a key methodological question: can sexuality, in its workings through ethnicity and 'race', be used as a primary tool of analysis in discussing how whiteness and 'Australianness' reconfigured itself through normative heteropatriarchy in an era that claimed to champion and celebrate difference? How and why did ambiguities concerning 'Australianness' prevail, concurrent with progressive and generally politically benign periods of Australian multiculturalism? The thesis argues that sexuality – through the construction of the 'good white hetero-patriarchal family' – both informed, and enabled, the endurance of anxieties around non-white ethnicity in Australia.

Zionism represents a turning point in the rise of the nation-state to its present near-ubiquity, a national movement which did not construct an identity concurrently with its embrace of nationalism, but reconstructed a diaspora to fit it. I explore how early Political Zionists, particularly Theodor Herzl, perceived both the push and pull of nationalism, and why they were drawn to adopt an ideology and political structure whose basic principles, I argue, were intrinsically hostile to Jews. I begin by examining the socialist Moses Hess as a forerunner and microcosm of later Zionism, arguing his work is underpinned by anxiety about social heterogeneity. The second chapter focuses on portrayals of diaspora, its contradictions and the ambivalence they caused towards less assimilated Jews, nonetheless used as models for national identity. I continue by investigating the countries Herzl looked to as partners on the world stage and models of nationhood, arguing his vision of nationhood was far broader than that of most nationalists and involved a recognised role among other nations. The fourth chapter concerns understandings of 'homeland' and the relationship between people and territory, concluding Zionism's effect is achieved, not just by inhabiting Palestine, but by public desire and effort to do so. I devote my final chapter to concepts of modernity, its perception as both paradoxical and inescapable, and how national historical narratives arrange history into a rational, linear structure. While Zionists left many presumptions of nationalism and modernity unchallenged, most importantly that both nation and state transcend political divides, my conclusion stresses those presumptions they accepted, those aspects they saw as inescapable, and those they pragmatically performed belief in, to achieve Gentile acceptance of Jewish nationhood. I surmise that it was this sense of inevitability, along with the difficulties of diaspora, which gave Jews reason to make displays of accepting the nation-state.

This thesis is a critical study of Scottish literary culture since 1989. It examines and interrogates critical work in Scottish literary studies through a ‘critical nationalist’ approach. This approach aims to provide a refinement of cultural nationalist literary criticism by prioritising the oppositional politics of recent Scottish writing, its criticism of institutional and state processes, and its refusal to exempt Scotland from this critique. In the introduction I identify two fundamental tropes in recent Scottish literary criticism: opposition to a cultural nationalist critical narrative which is overly concerned with ‘Scottishness’ and critical centralising of marginalised identity in the establishment of a national canon. Chapter one interrogates a tendency in Scottish literary studies which reads Scottish literature in terms of parliamentary devolution, and demonstrates how a critical nationalist approach avoids the pitfalls of this reading. Chapter two is a study of two novels by the critically neglected and politically Unionist author Andrew O’Hagan, arguing that these novels criticise an insular and regressive Scotland in order to reveal an ambivalent, ‘Janus-faced’ nationalism. Chapter three examines representations of Scottish traditional and folk music in texts by A. L. Kennedy and Alan Bissett, engaging with the Scottish folk tradition since the 1950s revival in order to demonstrate literature and music’s ambivalent responses to aspects of literary and cultural nationalism. Chapter four examines texts by Janice Galloway, Alasdair Gray and James Kelman, analysing the relationships they construct between gender, nation and class. Chapter five examines three contemporary Scottish texts and elucidates an ethical turn in Scottish literary studies, which reads contemporary writing in terms of appropriation and exploitation.

The use of violence in the Israel/Palestine conflict has been justified and legitimised by an appeal to religion. Militant Islamist organisations like Ramas have become central players in the Palestinian political landscape as a result of the popular support that they enjoy. This thesis aims to investigate the reasons for this support by analysing the Israel/Palestine conflict in terms of Ruman Needs Theory. According to this Theory, humans have essential needs that need to be fulfilled in order to ensure survival and development. Among these needs, the need for identity and recognition of identity is of vital importance. This thesis thus explores the concept of identity as a need, and investigates this need as it relates to inter-group conflict. In situating this theory in the Israel/Palestine conflict, the study exammes how organisations like Ramas have Islamised Palestinian national identity in order to garner political support. The central contention, then, is that the primary identity group of the Palestinian population is no longer nationalist, but Islamic/nationalist. In Islamising the conflict with Israel as well as Palestinian identity, Ramas has been able to justify its often indiscriminate use of violence by appealing to religion. The conflict is thus perceived to be one between two absolutes - that of Islam versus Judaism. In considering the conflict as one of identities struggling for survival in a climate of perceived threat, any attempt at resolution of the conflict needs to include a focus on needs-based issues. The problem-solving approach to negotiation allows for parties to consider issues of identity, recognition and security needs, and thus ensures that the root causes of conflicts are addressed, The contention is that this approach is vital to any conflict resolution strategy where identity needs are at stake, and it provides the grounding for the success of more traditional zero-sum bargaining methods. A recognition of Islamic identity in negotiation processes in Israel/Palestine may thus make for a more comprehensive conflict resolution strategy, and make the outcomes of negotiations more acceptable to the people of Palestine, thus undermining the acceptance of violence that exists at present.

This thesis investigates the activities of the Majlisul Islamil A`la Indonesia (MIAI), an Islamic federative organization of pre-independent Indonesia, elaborating in particular on the federation's socio-religious and political stance. Operating for only six years (1937--1943), the MIAI represented Muslim groups, as a counterpart to the "secularists," within the nationalist movement during both the final years of Dutch rule and the early stages of the Japanese occupation. The MIAI was established for the specific purpose of unifying the Islamic organizations---political and non-political, traditionalist and modernist alike---while at the same time reviving Muslim political and socio-religious strength after the decline of the Sarekat Islam, which had for almost fifteen years dominated the nationalist scene.
The mission of the MIAI was seen by Muslims as a response to the threat posed by external forces. It reacted in particular against Dutch policies considered discriminatory by Muslims concerning matters involving Islamic belief and practice, such as marriage and education. The federation also took a strong stand regarding Christian polemic aimed at Islam and took part in Indonesian Muslim response. That the establishment of the MIAI was favored by most Islamic organizations attested to the strong sentiment among Indonesian Muslims for a common front, regardless of their differences on socio-religious and political issues. Together with the GAPI (Gabungan Partai Politik Indonesia or the Federation of Indonesian Political Parties) and the PVPN (Persatuan Vakbonden Pegawai Negeri, or the Association of Government Employees), the MIAI took part in demanding political reform on behalf of Muslim groups. Indeed, notwithstanding its short life span, the MIAI was a pioneer for national unity in general and Indonesian Muslim unity in particular.

In 1991, a diplomatic controversy arose between Greece and the newly independent Republic of Macedonia, regarding naming, minority rights and the use of historical symbols. The claims of the new state to the name Macedonia and the historical heritage associated with it were perceived as a threat against Greek national identity and history itself. Within months, the so-called Macedonian question came to dominate the Greek domestic and foreign policy agenda. In Greek public debate, the conflict blended with concerns about the nation’s past, present and future, which played into the challenges brought about by the end of the Cold War. The Macedonian conflict can thus be understood as symptomatic of a crisis in Greek historical culture, as well as a catalyst for broader concerns about the role of history in contemporary society. This study explores the contexts in which the conflict evolved and how history was perceived, narrated and used by institutions, communities and individuals who sought to influence public opinion and policy-makers. The theoretical point of departure is the concept of historical culture, defined as the totality of discourses through which a society makes sense of itself, the present and the future through the interpretation of the past. In the study of historical culture, the notions of narratives and uses of history have been employed, with the notion of boundary-work as a supplementing analytical tool. The material of the study is primarily drawn from mainstream press, but also includes historiography. The study shows how the Macedonian controversy was intertwined with the identity- and memory-political demands of substate actors. Particular attention is paid to the emergence of a narrative on genocide among Greeks of Pontian origins. This happened in an age when traditional notions of national pride were being challenged by transnational history-cultural concerns about human rights and the notion of national guilt. The study also sheds light on how academic historians dealt with issues brought about by demands for politically committed scholarship, objectivity, legitimacy and the need to adjust in a transnational setting.
Denna studie har sin utgångspunkt i de utmaningar som det grekiska samhället och nationalstaten stod inför vid kalla krigets slut. I fokus står den diplomatiska konflikten mellan Grekland och republiken Makedonien, gällande den senare partens namn och bruk av historiskt laddade symboler samt minoritetsrättigheter. Denna makedonska konflikt som seglade upp i samband med Jugoslaviens sammanbrott kom att dominera den in- och utrikespolitiska dagordningen i Grekland under det tidiga 1990-talet, och förde tidvis in landet på kollisionskurs med dess västeuropeiska och amerikanska partners. Avhandlingens syfte har bestått i att spåra de sammanhang som denna konflikt växte fram i. Jag hävdar att den makedonska konflikten inte endast skall förstås som en kris i grekisk inrikespolitik, eller i landets relationer med omvärlden, utan fastmer som en kris i den grekiska historiekulturen. I det offentliga samtalet i Grekland smälte konflikten samman med en oro gällande nationens förflutna, nutid och framtid. Den diplomatiska fejden med den nya grannstaten i norr uppmärksammades av en bred allmänhet och åtföljdes av en diskurs som utmålade den egna nationens historia och arv som hotade. Studiet av denna diskurs, eller rättare sagt diskurser, om historia är ett viktigt mål i denna avhandling, eftersom det belyser uppfattningar om det förflutna jämte farhågor rörande nuet och nationens framtid, uppfattningar och farhågor som ytterst präglade den politiska krisen. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten för studien återfinns i begreppet historiekultur. Med detta avses de samtliga diskurser genom vilka ett samhälle begripliggör sig självt, nuet och framtiden genom att tolka det förflutna. Sålunda definierad skall historiekultur förstås som både struktur och process. Det innebär att historiekulturen är både ramverket av kunskap, attityder och värderingar som ger den enskilde mening och sammanhang, och samhällen deras sammanhållning, och själva handlingen genom vilka ovansagda skapas och förmedlas. Som redskap för att studera historiekultur har begreppen berättelser och historiebruk använts. Eftersom studien särskilt uppmärksammar fackhistorikers roll i konflikten – viktiga i egenskap av aktörer som skapar och sprider den kunskap och de värderingar som utgör historiekultur – har även ett vetenskapssociologiskt perspektiv infogats. Offentliga kontroverser rörande det förflutna inbegriper kamp om trovärdigheten i vissa tolkningar liksom hos dem som framför dem. Som kompletterande analysredskap brukas begreppet gränsdragning (boundary-work), utifrån uppfattningen att vetenskapen bör studeras i det sociala sammanhang i vilket den bibringas mening och auktoritet. Historiekultur studeras genom dess lämningar. I föreliggande avhandling utgörs källmaterialet främst av artiklar i grekisk dagspress, men även historieskrivning (akademisk såväl som icke-akademisk) i bokform, vetenskapliga tidskrifter och andra relevanta trycksaker där historia debatteras, berättas, sätts in i sammanhang och brukas, har studerats. Materialet täcker ingalunda grekisk historiekultur i hela dess vidd men utgör likväl ett representativt urval av de arenor där såväl allmänhet som specialister mötte diskurser och debatter om det förflutna. 324 Studien har kartlagt de sätt på vilka historia brukades med särskilt avseende på de intressen som kan skönjas däri. Själva upplevelsen av kris tog sig uttryck i ett existentiellt historiebruk, kopplats till ett sökande efter rötter och kontinuitet som närdes av fruktan för krig, rotlöshet och kulturell minnesförlust. Det upplevda yttre hotet mot Grekland beskrevs ofta i termer av en hotande utmaning gentemot den nationella identiteten och nationens överlevnad, men också som en möjlighet att återupprätta en samlande nationell berättelse. Samtidigt brukades historia med både kommersiella och politiska mål i sikte, eftersom det nationella förflutna sågs som en moralisk, politisk och ekonomisk tillgång. Ett framträdande drag i debatten var ett politiskt historiebruk som syftade till att utmana en upplevd vänsterhegemoni som utmålades som ett hinder för nationell enighet och främjandet av Greklands utrikespolitiska målsättningar i utlandet. Men historia kunde även brukas politiskt för att visa på nationalismens avarter. Särskild uppmärksamhet har ägnats åt det moraliska historiebruket. Detta är ett bruk som utmanar vad som utpekas som förhärskande föreställningar och därför är ett medel för historiekulturens förändring. Historieproducenter längs med den politiska skalan tenderade att utforma sina berättelser i kritisk och moralistisk anda, även om syftet ofta var att bevara en traditionell förståelse av nationell historia och identitet. Emellertid är det berättelser som utmanar den nationella tolkningsramen som undersökts särskilt noggrant. Det moraliska historiebruket hänger samman med hur den makedonska frågan nyttjades till att främja minnespolitiska krav. I detta sammanhang har särskild uppmärksamhet riktats mot den slaviskmakedonska minoritetsaktivismen som prisade etnisk särart och anklagade den grekiska staten för diskriminering. Dess historiebruk underblåste föreställningar om ett överhängande hot mot den grekiska nationalstaten och tilltalade som sådant också grupperingar inom den grekiska vänstern, som i den slaviskmakedonska kritiska berättelsen såg ett medel till förändring av rådande samhällsordning och den nationella historiekulturen, genom att blottlägga statens ”ideologiska historiebruk”. En grupp som brukade historien moraliskt och som i viss utsträckning även länkade sin minnespolitiska dagordning till den makedonska frågan återfanns bland de pontiska grekerna. Studien har belyst hur en pontisk identitet knuten till en berättelse om folkmord i Turkiet och en historia av diskriminering i Grekland växte fram i senare delen av 1980-talet och erkändes av staten 1994. Medan kapitel 3 utforskar det lokala historiekulturella landskapet i det grekiska Makedonien, belyser kapitel 4 även de förbindelser som pontiska aktivister sökte upprätta med historiska berättelser utanför den nationella historiens ramverk, huvudsakligen det armeniska folkmordet och förintelsen. Förhållandet mellan politik och historia, mellan kritiska berättelser som utmanade förhärskande uppfattningar i nationella frågor och dem som försvarade den förda politikens legitimitet och den officiella historieskrivningen, står i fokus för kapitel 5. Den makedonska konflikten medförde kolliderande anspråk på expertis inom vetenskapssamhället – mellan ämnesdiscipliner och enskilda forskare – såväl som mellan fackmän och lekmän, vilket tog sig uttryck i retoriska 325 uteslutningsmekanismer. För somliga bar den allmänna betoningen av nationell historia ett löfte med sig om finansiering och förstärkt prestige åt dem som hade denna inriktning. Andra uppfattade den makedonska krisen och historieskrivning med nationella och politiska förtecken som ett direkt hot mot den fria forskningen och Greklands överlevnad som ett demokratiskt samhälle. Den akademiska autonomin som föreföll hotad skyddades genom att insistera på en skiljelinje mellan historia som vetenskap respektive som ”ideologiskt bruk” för politiska ändamål. Detta försök att återupprätta konsensus inom vetenskapssamhället genom att vädja till professionens etiska principer blev också en utväg för historiker som med tiden sökte distansera sig från en förd politik som uppfattades som skamfilad och nationalistisk. Analysen har visat på de sammanhang i vilka den makedonska krisen växte fram och hur farhågorna för och bruket av historia kan förstås. Den första av dessa kontexter är den inrikespolitiska, närmare bestämt det grekiska samhällets demokratisering efter 1974. I det nya pluralistiska klimatet införlivades delar av den tidigare förföljda vänsterns kritiska berättelse om det nära förflutna i statens historieskrivning. Övergången från ett auktoritärt samhälle och historiekultur till en ökad öppenhet banade även väg för missnöjda gruppers identitetspolitik (slaviska makedoner, pontiska och andra anatoliska greker), grupper vars historiebruk naggade de gamla nationella och ideologiska stora berättelserna i kanten. Vid tiden för kalla krigets slut 1989 hade en allmänt spridd besvikelse gentemot de politiska ideologierna, i synnerhet socialismen, medfört en motreaktion till förmån för en mer traditionell nationalism. Det andra betydelsefulla sammanhanget återfinns i den europeiska integrationen som följde på Greklands EG-inträde 1981. Denna medförde inte endast hopp om ekonomisk vinning utan även behovet att bearbeta förlusten av nationellt självbestämmande och traditionella former av självförståelse. Grekland stod inför uppgiften att finna sin plats i det nya Europa, samtidigt som landet måste hantera den nya verklighet som 1990-talets krig på Balkan medförde. Särskilt historiker betonade att denna process gjorde det nödvändigt att europeisera nationens värderingar och uppfattningar kring historia, en uppgift som försvårades av Greklands hållning i den makedonska frågan och det sätt på vilket man slog vakt om ”historiska rättigheter”. Även aktivister som, huvudsakligen i den grekiska diasporan, var sysselsatta med att marknadsföra denna fråga pekade på behovet av att modernisera aspekter av den nationella historiekulturen i en tid av europeiskt enande och konvergerande historieutbildningar. Det som ovan beskrivits har ett nära samband med det tredje stora sammanhanget, som även det är av transnationell art. Den nationella historiekulturen är inte avskild från omvärlden; föreställningar om det förflutna rör sig över nationella gränser. På global nivå sammanföll den makedonska konflikten med de s.k. history wars, historiekrig som rasade vid samma tid runtom i världen. Dessa återspeglar i sin tur urholkandet av de stora nationella och ideologiska berättelserna i västerländska samhällen, de identitets- och minnespolitiska kraven hos under- och ickestatliga aktörer, de mänskliga rättigheternas paradigm och 326 beklagandets politik (the politics of regret), som anammar nationell skuld som ny princip för politisk legitimitet. Trenden inom transnationell historiekultur mot en mer universell moral, symboliserad av den ”amerikaniserade” (och ”europeiserade”) förintelsens moral innebar en ytterligare utmaning mot de nationella historiekulturerna. Den pontiska folkmordsberättelsen (och dess nationaliserade förlängning) analyseras som svarande till kravet på en ”amerikanisering” av grekisk historiekultur. I detta sammanhang lyfts den grekiska diasporans roll fram, inte endast som instrumentell i utformningen av Greklands utrikespolitiska dagordning, men även i egenskap av förmedlare av historiekulturella angelägenheter och behovet av anpassning till transnationell omgivning. Konsekvenser av denna ”amerikaniserade” folkmordsberättelse diskuteras. Ett fjärde sammanhang, med en både nationell och transnationell dimension, är det akademiska, inom vilket forskare debatter och formar historiens representation. Identitetspolitikens ankomst och den makedonska konflikten stod även i samband med den objektivistiska historieskrivningens legitimitetskris och den postmoderna utmaningen. Urholkningen av staters bärande historieberättelse och tolkningsföreträde motsvarades i viss utsträckning av ett undergrävt förtroende för den traditionella historieskrivningens trovärdighet och auktoritet. Denna urholkning kunde tolkas som ett hot mot själva historievetenskapen och professionen. Ett annat sätt att bemöta detta hot var att betrakta såväl det som den makedonska krisen som en uppfordran till perspektivskifte inom forskning och historieskrivning. Samspelet mellan politik och historia, mellan förståelsen av svunna realiteter, nutida bekymmer och förväntningar inför framtiden formade sålunda den politiska krisen och banade väg för den grekiska historiekulturens förändring.

Dante Alighieri is, undoubtedly, an enduring feature of the cultural memory of generations of Italians. His influence is such that the mere mention of a ‘dark wood’ or ‘life’s journey’ recalls the poet and his most celebrated work, the Divina Commedia. This study, however, seeks to examine the construction of the medieval Florentine poet, exemplified by the above assertion, as a potent symbol of the Italian nation. From the creation of the idea of the Italian nation during the Risorgimento, to the Liberal ruling elite’s efforts after 1861 to legitimise the new Italian nation state, and more importantly to ‘make Italians’, to the rise of a more imperialist conception of nationalism in the early twentieth century and its most extreme expression under the Fascist regime, Dante was made to play a significant role in defining, justifying and glorifying the Italian nation. Such an exploration of the utilisation of Dante in the construction of Italian national identity during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries aids considerably in an understanding of the conceptualisation of the Italian nation, of the issues engendered by the establishment of the Italian nation state, and the evolution of these processes throughout the period in question. The various images of Dante revealed by this investigation of his instrumentalisation in the Italian process of nation-building bear only a fleeting resemblance to what is known of the poet in his medieval reality. Dante was born in 1265 to a family of modest means and standing in Florence, at that time the economic centre of Europe, and one of the most important cities of the Italian peninsula. His writings disclosed, however, that he was little impressed by his city’s prestige and wealth, being instead greatly disturbed by its political discord and instability, of which he became an unfortunate victim. The violent partisan conflict in Florence and the turbulent political condition of the Italian peninsula in the late thirteenth century had a decisive influence on Dante’s life and literary endeavours.

The thesis explores the white Rhodesian nationalist project led by the Rhodesian Front (RF) government in the UDI-period of 1965 to 1979. It seeks to examine the character and content of RF nation-building, arguing that it is important to consider the context of wider global and regional trends of nationalism at the time. Thus, it places the white Rhodesia within wider 'British World' studies of settler societies within the British Empire, but also compares it to other African nationalist movements in the 1960s and 1970s. It studies white Rhodesian nationalism on its own terms as a sincere, albeit unrealistic, alternative to majority-rule independence, and considers how the RF adapted over the period in its continuing attempts to justify minority-rule in an era of global decolonisation. Two thematic sections examine the RF's nation-building project in systematic detail. The first section, on symbolism, considers Rhodesia's processes of 'symbolic decolonisation'. This involved white Rhodesians creating new national symbols not associated with Britain or the British Empire. Processes by which new national symbols were chosen are used as a lens to explore white Rhodesian debates about their 'new' nation after the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) was taken in 1965. They reveal the ambiguities and complexities at the heart of the RF's nation-building project; a project that was frequently exclusionary and hotly contested at every opportunity. The second section explores how history was used to help create and defend the nation, adding to studies of the use of history in nationalist projects. It considers a range of non-professional sites of history-making, demonstrating the complicated relationships between these different sites and the state's wider nationalist agenda. It also explores how history was invoked to justify and defend minority-rule independence both before and after UDI.

It has become commonplace in academic studies, particularly those with a critical bent, to view nations as being historical constructs, as being without essence, though not without effects of exclusion and inclusion, of the constitution of the „authentic‟ national subject and the „other of the nation.‟ The critical impetus at work here is to show how a nation is constructed in order to bring into view the knowledge and power relations this construction entails, to show whose interests the construction serves, and whose it does not. This study examines the discursive production, the performative enactment and the spatial emplacement of post-apartheid „South Africanness‟ through a case study of Oppikoppi music festival. Oppikoppi is an annual event that emerged in 1994, on the threshold of the „new South Africa.‟ The festival is attended predominantly by young white Afrikaans-speaking South Africans and is held on a farm in the northernmost province of Limpopo, South Africa, an area notoriously conservative in its racial politics. Yet, curiously, Oppikoppi has been repeatedly referred to, and refers to itself with an almost obsessive regularity and repetitiveness, as a „truly South African‟ event. Indeed, the festival has been promoted, since 1998, as „The Home of South African Music,‟ and in 2009 the site of the festival was unofficially declared a „national monument.‟ Through the employment of concepts drawn from the writings of French philosopher and historian, Michel Foucault – particularly his earlier archaeological works – and from Sigmund Freud – particularly his metapsychological works – this study has posed two broad sets of questions. Firstly, from a Foucauldian perspective, what have been the conditions for the production of „South Africanness‟ at this festival? What have been the requirements, the discursive „rules of the game‟ for whiteness and Afrikanerness to become „South African‟? To what extent does this constitution of the festival as a „South African‟ event preserve older lines of division, difference and oppression? To what extent does this bring about meaningful social change? Secondly, from a psychoanalytic perspective, what are the fantasies constellated in the discourse of the festival as a „South African‟ event? Who, in these fantasies, is constituted as the „other of the post-apartheid nation‟? How has fantasy provided a kind of „hallucinatory gratification,‟ a phantasmatic compensation for, and a means of conserving, the losses of privilege in the new nation? And how has fantasy oriented the festival towards post-apartheid sociality, soliciting identifications with the post-apartheid nation? The overarching argument proposed is that anti-apartheid post-apartheid nation building has cultivated a melancholic loss of apartheid for whites in general and Afrikaners in particular, a loss that cannot be grieved – indeed, a loss that should not be grieved – and, as such, a grief that takes on an unconscious afterlife. Apartheid and the life it enabled – not only racialised privilege, but also a structure of identification and idealisation, of being and having – becomes a loss that is buried in, and by, the injunctions issued to post-apartheid memory and conduct. Without the discursive resources with which to symbolise this loss, disguised repetitions of the past, a neurotic refinding of the lost objects of apartheid, and melancholia are the likely outcomes, each of which engender a set of exclusions and enjoyments that run along old and new lines.

This dissertation investigates the negotiation of history within the history textbook revision conducted by the Norden Associations between 1919 and 1972. The thesis combines an examination of the discussions surrounding the revision with an understanding of the organization of the revision process to study the negotiations between representatives of different historical cultures and the conditions within these historical cultures.  At the end of World War I, the teaching of history was challenged by internationalists and school­teachers as a chauvinistic and warmongering subject. The war was a catalyst for the emergence of history textbook revisions in general, and in the Nordic countries the war also became a catalyst for efforts to promote Nordic understanding and cooperation. These two outcomes of the war experience merged in the Norden Associations’ history textbook revision. The revision was promoted as both an effort to reach an agreement on a common Nordic history and an effort to present to the international community a peaceful corner of the world.  The theoretical framework of this dissertation draws on the concept of the nation as an imagined community and sees national historical cultures as being reflective of the community at that time and place. The discussions of historical events in the thesis are treated as motifs of a national myth, and they are scrutinized as part of the cognitive, political, and aesthetic dimensions of historical culture. The organizational features of the revision are studied through a network analysis of the organizational field.  Prior to World War II, involvement in the revision was reserved almost exclusively for historians. From the end of the 1950s, however, the initiative shifted towards teachers and teacher trainers. This dissertation shows that the revision was organized with an emphasis on national boundaries even though the revision itself was an effort to transcend these boundaries.  The results of this thesis show that the history within the revision was such an integral part of national identity that it was almost impossible to reach any understanding of a common Nordic history. Most motifs, such as the nation’s founding, liberation, golden age, and decline, within the individual national myths had very little common ground and they often contradicted each other. The debates in regards to historical events were also highly political. The historians involved in the revision process could not see past their own national context and were not able to approach the subject from a purely methodological or scientific stance. Pedagogical issues in the textbooks were almost completely ignored.  In conclusion, the history textbook revision conducted by the Norden Associations should probably be seen as a defense of nationalistic hegemony in the understanding of history and cultural identity instead of as a challenge to that hegemony. In addition, the decline in impact of the textbook revision in the 1960s can be explained as a result of this nationalistic identity giving way to the prosperity of a new hegemony that was more liberal, Eurocentric, and global.
Historia utan gräns: Den internationella historieboksrevisionen 1919-2009

La thèse analyse l'évolution de la législation de la nationalité du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg du Code civil des Français (1803) à la loi toute récente de 2008, avec une étude détaillée de la période qui va de l'indépendance du pays (1839) au début de la Seconde guerre mondiale (1940). L'étude dégage l'influence importante de la législation des pays voisins sur cette évolution.L'histoire de l'Etat-nation, des migrations et de la politique migratoire est également abordée.

The dissertation analyzes the evolution of the nationality legislation of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg from the French Code civil (1803) till the most recent law of 2008.
Doctorat en Histoire, art et archéologie
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

At first glance, the long tradition of Quebecois adaptations of Shakespeare might seem paradoxical, since Quebec is a francophone nation seeking political independence and has little direct connection to the British literary canon. However, it is precisely this cultural distance that allows Quebecois playwrights to play irreverently with Shakespeare and use his texts to explore issues of nation and gender which are closely connected to each other. Soon after the Quiet Revolution, adaptations such as Robert Gurik's Hamlet, prince du Quebec and Jean-Claude Germain's Rodeo et Juliette raised the question "To be or not to be free" in order to interrogate how Quebec could take action to achieve independence. In Macbeth and La tempete, Michel Garneau "tradapts" Shakespeare and situates his texts in the context of the Conquest. Jean-Pierre Ronfard's Lear and Vie et mort du Roi Boiteux carnivalize the nation and permit women to rise to power. Adaptations since 1990 reveal awareness of the need for cultural and gender diversity so that women, queers, and immigrants may contribute more to the nation's development. Since Quebec is simultaneously colonial, neo-colonial, and postcolonial, Quebecois playwrights negotiate differently than English Canadians the fine line between the enrichment of their local culture and its possible contamination, assimilation, or effacement by Shakespeare's overwhelming influence, which thus allows them to appropriate his texts in service of gender issues and the decolonization of the Quebec nation.

This thesis explores facets of Scottish identity via the decorative work of Douglas Strachan. Nations and nationalism remain extraordinarily potent phenomena in the contemporary world and this work seeks to examine aspects of Scottish nationhood and cultural identity through Strachan's evocation of history, folklore, religion and myth. It has been argued that these are the chief catalysts for enabling people to define and shape their understanding of themselves and their place within society. Cultural identity is often understood as a passive form of nationalism which is remote from its political counterpart. Yet there are strong arguments to counter this belief. This thesis addresses some of the issues raised by such arguments and adopts an ethno-symbolic approach in order to re-evaluate Strachan's work, and that of his contemporaries. The thesis also develops the theoretical and contextual debates concerning the decorative arts in general and stained glass in particular in order to raise awareness of its merits and its role within our society.

The prison novels (Haji Murat, Haji Abdullah and Süleyman Effendi) of Western Armenian writer Hagop Oshagan (1883-1948) articulate two unprecedented sociocultural critiques of Armenian experience. Like much of Oshagan's works, these novels, comprising the cycle Haryur Mék Tarvan [101 Years' Imprisonment] (1933), have scarcely been studied. The task of this study is to reveal the nature of Oshagan's critique, and to revise two chief Armenian literary critical trends: that of either de-contextualizing or instrumentalizing these novels' nationalist preoccupations; that is, either overlooking their contextual relevance as responses to contemporaneous nationalist dogmas, or distorting them to seem ideologically sympathetic. Oshagan's novels rather deploy the prison trope to foreground and question the aesthetic and ideological influence of late 19^th century Armenian nationalist-revolutionary movements. They moreover undermine the persisting paradigm borne of nationalist-revolutionary rhetoric that collectively represents Armenians and Turks as victims and victimizers respectively. The present study reads Oshagan in the wider context of Armenian penological literature, and locates his engagement with nationalist-revolutionary ideology as an overtly critical, rather than sympathetic project. It provides an unprecedented appraisal of such political movements' primarily negative impact upon late 19^th and early 20^th century Western Armenian literature, a tradition that has presented 'Armenianness' through an almost exclusive narrative of subjection. This literary historical background allows Oshagan's singularity to appear. He is the first to recognize the prison trope as the preferred nationalist-revolutionary literary convention, a trope he then reconfigures in order to formulate an alternative, a literary mode of nationalism - namely, mystic nationalism - informed by his readings of Dostoevsky's novels. Oshagan imagines and articulates anew the Armenian-Turk relationship in terms that complicate, subvert and transcend the normative master/slave model instituted by nationalist-revolutionary rhetoric. In the process, he elaborates a conception of these movements as inadvertently complicit in the discursive - and, ultimately, also political - (self)-subjection of Armenians culminating as experiences of absolute subjection. After Oshagan, this study constitutes the first comprehensive analysis of literary renderings of both Armenian-Turk relations and nationalist-revolutionary ideology.