Mar. 23

Meanings of Nationalism

I. Different terms and forms of political identity:

A. Empire.
B. City-state.
C. Ethnicity.
D. Nation.
E. Nation-state.
F. Nationalism.

II. Nations are made. They are not natural or essential.

III. What do you need for a nation?

A. Sense of belonging together expressed in various cultural and political forms.
B. Importance of language.
C. Hence, nationalists need, after a language has been found or decreed:

1. Dictionary.
2. Epic poem.

D. Other key elements in the national mythology:

1. An enemy--very important.
2. Concept of history.
3. Concept of struggle.

IV. More refined definitions.

A. Nationalism as secularized religion:

1. Redemptive quality to it.
2. Commands supreme loyalties.
3. The narration, again, of struggle and history.
4. Cult of the dead, complete with relics.

B. As secularized religion, can take on various political forms.
C. The gendering of the nation.

1. Men fight and create.
2. The nurturing women, the fertile life-givers of the nation.